


Crossing Paths

by L56895



Series: Old writings [2]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime)
Genre: Abuse, Aged-Up Character(s), Domestic Violence, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-15
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:27:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 23
Words: 43,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27031177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/L56895/pseuds/L56895
Summary: Ash and Misty have drifted apart but, years later, a chance encounter might save them both.
Relationships: Kasumi | Misty/Satoshi | Ash Ketchum
Series: Old writings [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1972534
Kudos: 11





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I originally wrote this story back in 2009 as a way of dealing with my own domestic abuse situation, although I didn’t realise that had been what I was doing until I re-read it years later. Hindsight it a wonderful thing.
> 
> I’m posting it here, unchanged, now.

_“… And Pikachu takes out Ampharos with a final Thunder! We have a new Pokemon Master! A new Pokemon Master! You heard it here first, folks!”_

Derek turned up the volume on his TV. He’d started watching the match with a minor degree of interest, the kid challenger hadn’t seemed to have had any prospect of winning in the beginning. Barely in his twenties, scruffy looking, couldn’t even control his own pikachu enough to keep it in its ball. Not a patch against the stoic Master. But quite swiftly he’d proved himself worthy of Derek’s attention.

_“…Ash Ketchum is the new Pokemon Master! And… wait… The youngest! The youngest Pokemon Master to date! This is truly a day to remember folks!”_

  
“Hey, Babe? Did you hear that!” Derek craned his neck towards the kitchen where his girlfriend stood, soapy plate in hand. She glanced over her shoulder and shook her head.

“This kid just beat the Pokemon Master. Impressive, ay? Youngest ever, after Lance.”

“How old is he?” she asked absently, blowing at a hard to reach bubble.

“Twenty one, according to the bio before the match. I wasn’t paying much attention. Said he was from Pallet. Didn’t think a small-town kid would stand a chance in this business.” He leant back and draped his arm over the back of the sofa, laughing quietly to himself, “I have to say I’m impressed. Ash Ketchum, Pokemon Master. Doesn’t have much of a ring to it, the bookies didn’t hold high stakes for him. Bet a load of people made a mint on that win, ay Babe?”

_Crack._

“Watch it! That was one of my best plates!” He flung himself out of his chair, wide-armed. “What’re you playing at?”

But she wasn’t listening, instead staring wide-eyed at the television screen. The image had focused on the new Pokemon Master, smiling, surrounded by his friends. Brock, the leader of the Pewter City Gym. Professor Oak, a prominent figure in the field of Pokemon research and his associate, Tracey. His entourage was frankly impressive. But her attention was focused on the woman at his side; young, pretty, her bright hair contrasting sharply with his black mane. Slender fingers entwined with his. He leant over and kissed her. Kissed _her._

  
“Hey, Misty? I asked you what’s wrong.”

“Nothing,” she paused, shook her head, “It’s nothing, really.”

“Well, clean up that mess then,” He reached out to grab her hand, twisting her round to face him, “And stop fantasising. No way would the new Pokemon Master want you anyways.”


	2. Chapter One

Ash Ketchum’s truck rattled along the dirt track. Pikachu nestled in the passenger seat beside him, lazily licking the lid of a ketchup bottle. He belched happily. He’d stopped hanging out of the window to watch the scenery about an hour before hand, after a particularly rude gesture from a wild Mankey, and the car journey had swiftly become boring. Ash flashed him a grin and ruffled the fur on his head.

They’d been on the road for a good four hours now; Ash had long since stopped counting the minutes and had moved on to miles. They were close, though, he’d been able to discard the map and simply follow the signposts to Mt. Moon a few miles back. He veered right at the sign for Route 25.

_“Are you drunk again?”_

Brock had been concerned from the moment the announcement of his victory was made. The first week had been mainly parties and press conferences, alcohol and photographers. Everybody shouting his name. Ash Ketchum, Pokemon Master. It had been a shock, although he wouldn’t admit it. Brock had seen it, buried beneath the way he was the life and soul of the party Brock could tell he was damaging himself. He had propped him up enough times over the past few weeks. The press had started to notice the way his speech was slurring, the way his eyes were bloodshot. It had been too much of a shock…To finally achieve his goal of becoming a Pokemon Master after eleven years of trying.

_“You need a break. This is all too much for you.”_

Of course, he had his Pokemon to thank for that.

Brock had insisted that he leave them with Professor Oak, back in Pallet Town. They’d be in good hands, he knew it, but he still missed the comfort of having them with him. But they needed a break too. He knew the Gary in particular was looking forward to the chance to study the Pokemon now enshrined in the Indigo Plateau. Their rivalry had subsided as they grew up and they had become close companions, even though Gary was unwilling to show it in public. In private, he had promised to take good care of Ash’s team.

Pikachu had insisted he went along with Ash. Neither he nor Brock had been inclined to argue.

_“We’re all worried about you. Faith hasn’t stopped crying all morning, even Gary is asking after you.”_

Faith had stood by him in every round. Cheering him on, louder even than his own mother. The press had focussed on her as his inspiration; his ‘muse’ had been the preferred terminology. Ash had never thought of her like that, although her presence at his side had been a great comfort for him over the past few years. His fiancé. The concept was difficult to come to terms with, even now. He wasn’t exactly sure what had possessed him to propose. He knew he was scared of things spiralling out of control, wanted to grab a hold of everything he could while he still had the chance. Everything was changing now. Things were out of his control.

Faith had made the announcement at the after party, before he’d even had the chance to tell his friends and family. Brock had simply nodded. His mother had gasped and hugged them, but he knew she had been crying at night. He had stood there blankly, grinning wildly, squinting at the flashes as the press grappled to photograph the happy couple.

Out of control...

_“Take a break. Get away from everything for a while. Clear your head.”_

Ash sighed. They were right; he needed to get his head round everything.

“We’re here buddy!”

Pikachu, who had been dozing on his now full stomach, jerked awake and hopped onto the dashboard.

“Pika!” They hopped out of the car and Pikachu sniffed the air, his ears perking up.

“Impressive, huh? Brock was right.”

The twin cabins were nestled deep in the woods, with only the track they had come down as a link to the outside world. Brock had marketed it as a ‘picturesque holiday home made for rest and relaxation’. Ash doubted that Brock’s current definition of ‘rest and relaxation’ was synonymous with ‘fun’.

“Pika! Pikapi!” Pikachu hopped up and down on the spot, pointing towards the second cabin. Ash squinted and shaded his eyes against the sun. There was somebody moving about inside. Well, at least the two of them wouldn’t be completely starved for company on this trip.

“Huh? Oh I see, you think she’s cute, ay Pikachu?”

Ash pulled his backpack over his shoulder and watched as Pikachu bounded over to the cabin window. The girl was too busy washing something in the sink to notice the little yellow mouse at first. Until Pikachu jumped up to the ledge and pressed his face up against the glass.

Ash laughed as she jumped in fright and grimaced. Pikachu waved happily, sparks flying from his cheeks. He always did have a soft spot for the girls, especially…

“ _Misty?”_

It was possible, of course it was. Mt. Moon was a Cerulean girl’s dream holiday spot, but he never dreamed she’d _be_ here. They’d lost contact so long ago. And now…

She had disappeared from the window and flung open the door, staring back at him. His wide eyed expression mirrored in hers.

…Misty was here.

“Woah! Mate! Are you Ash Ketchum?”

Ash spun round. He hadn’t seen the man before, he must have been in the woods. It was obvious he had been hunting, and Ash grimaced at the thought. He had a rifle under his arm, a dead Spearow hanging limply in his hand. Ash took a step back.

“Er… Yeah. I am…” He said nervously, unsure of whether this was a good or a bad thing.

“Hey Babe! Check this out!” He beckoned Misty over and wrapped his arm around her waist, “It’s that guy I was telling you about, the new Pokemon Master.”

_That Guy?_

“I’m Derek. Big fan.” He shook Ash’s hand warmly, gruffly. “This is my girl, Misty.”

Ash scoffed, “I kno-”. He caught Misty’s expression; she was staring at him, eyes pleading. He coughed.

“I’m sorry my Pikachu startled you miss.” He took her outstretched hand, “Pleased to meet you both.”

Derek grinned and patted him on the shoulder

“Listen, mate we’ve gotta go but... Why don’t you come over tonight? For a drink? Consider it belated congratulations from two fans.”

Ash nodded and forced a smile as the couple turned and walked towards their cabin. He suddenly wasn’t feeling so good…

“Well, Pikachu. This may not be the relaxing holiday Brock hoped for…”


	3. Chapter Two

“He wasn’t quite what I expected…” Derek fell back on the sofa and propped his feet up on the table. Misty leant against the doorway, watching him carefully as he pulled off one of his sandals and rubbed his feet. The Spearow he had caught earlier lay limp on the table in front of him. Misty wrinkled her nose and picked up the plate of sandwiches he’d discarded.

“No… he looked… ill…”

Derek scoffed, “You’re one to talk. You’re looking a bit peaky nowadays.” He sighed, “What happened to the fiery red head I fell for?”

 _You did._ Thought Misty, but she dared not say it out loud. He hadn’t exploded so far, but she could expect to pay a hefty damage fee on the cabin if he did now. His mood swings were swift and often dangerous, Misty was in no mood to incur one.

“I heard he went off the rails a bit after he was announced Master.” He laughed softly, “Poor little kid couldn’t handle it.”

“He’s not a kid, Derek. He’s only a year younger than me.”

He turned round and glared, eyes darkening. Misty shrank back against the doorframe as he leaned over her, looming with his arm braced against the door.

“Oh? You taken a shine to Mr Master over there?”

“No, I’m sorry… I just… I didn’t think…”

“That’s you’re problem. You don’t think,” he grinned, pulling her into him, “Good thing you’ve got me to make sure you don’t cock things up again.”

“I, I’m sorry...”

Derek smiled and kissed her on the forehead, snaking his fingers through her hair.

“It’s alright, Babe. I’ll always be here to make sure you do things right.” He whispered, pulling at the buttons on her blouse with her free hand.

“Don’t. Please.” She whispered, but he carried on, tugging at her buttons to clutch at her breasts. He couldn’t hear her, she had to believe it. Or else it would mean admitting to herself that he simply ignored her when she pleaded with him to stop.

He compelled her backwards, towards to bedroom door and suddenly she was powerless to stop it. The pressure he put on her arms dragged her down to the bed and he bit her neck, hard. He liked to hurt. Pain was part of the game.

“Derek, stop! Please!"

He liked it more when she struggled.

“Please stop! Please sto-”

_Slap!_

She winced at the stinging pain in her cheek, trying to free her hands from his grip either side of her head. He was grinning, and she felt his breath become heavier on her face as she squirmed underneath him. She bit down hard on her lip as he entered her, trying to stop the tears from falling. She couldn’t cry. He’d never let her forget it if she cried.

“You want to play, ay?” he smirked, pulling the pillow out from under her head.

“Derek, please! No!” she screamed but her voice was already muffled by the force of his hand and pillow over her face.

_I don’t like this game. I don’t want to play._

She gasped violently when he allowed her to resurface. He was laughing at her, watching her wheeze and clutch at her throat. As she caught her breath his mouth was on hers again, moaning with every movement of his hips. Misty held her breath and squeezed her eyes shut as he climaxed, pushing further into her, his fingers burying themselves in her flesh.

“Clean yourself up!” he said gruffly, fumbling to tighten the buckle on his belt, “That Ash kid will be here soon.” 

*** 

Ash knocked on the cabin door nervously, a bottle of wine tucked under his arm. Brock had always said that it was rude to arrive at a person’s house without some sort of offering, although Ash was never sure if this wasn’t a clever ploy to avoid buying his own alcohol. After all, he never visited anyone else. But to bring a present to this place calmed his nerves. He wasn’t entirely sure whether Derek’s invite had been sincere, but it was a chance to see Misty again. Maybe even talk to her alone. But he couldn’t seem nervous. He knocked again, a little louder.

Who was he kidding? He was all nerves as Misty opened the door. She leant against the frame in a vaguely tired way, but he saw a little of his old friend in her eyes.

“Hey, Ash.” She whispered, smiling softly.

“Hey…” he breathed.

She’d grown up. Of course she had, it had been three years since he’d last seen her. Three years… He hadn’t realised before just how _long_ a time that was.

“Hey mate!” Derek appeared, pushing Misty aside. “I was getting worried you weren’t gonna show! Come in.”

“Thanks, I, er… brought a bottle of wine.”

“Cheers mate,”

“Nice to see you.” Whispered Misty, taking his hand and shaking it. She seemed a little out of breath, her hair out of place, her palms clammy. Ash gulped in embarrassment. They were a couple, of course they would be… intimate… but this was _Misty_ , he’d never thought of the idea of her with a man.

He cleared his throat.

“Pikachu says hi,” he said, looking carefully at her. Misty nodded briefly and smiled, unnoticed by Derek behind her, who was eyeing the wine label greedily.

“I’ll go get us some glasses!” he took the bottle from Ash’s hands. Ash watched him walk into the kitchen and, satisfied he was out of earshot, turned to Misty.

“Misty, what’s going on?” She jumped, mindful of Derek in the kitchen

“Ash, please be quiet. He’ll hear you!” Ash took her by the forearms and drew her closer. He tried to make eye contact but she avoided his gaze, staring at the floor.

“So?” he whispered softly, unable to disguise the hurt in his voice, “I’m your oldest friend? How can he not know?”

She took his hands and squeezed them, setting them down at his side.

“Please, Ash. Listen, Derek’s out every day. Come round tomorrow and we’ll talk. But he can’t know you know me.”

“Why not?” Ash hissed, but she had already started at the sound of Derek opening the door.

“Babe, let the poor guy sit down,” Derek re-entered the room and handed Ash a glass, gesturing towards the armchair. Ash dutifully sat and took a small sip of wine. “There’ll be other times to come over all fangirly.” He winked at Ash, who gripped the arm of his seat.

_Patronising git._

“So? Ash,” Derek leaned towards him, “What’s it like being the centre of attention?”

Ash laughed dryly, swirling his glass, “Well, if I’m honest, this holiday was mainly to avoid talking about myself.”

Derek raised his hand

“Say no more, not another word about it,” he laughed heartily, “Tonight anyway.”

“But I’d love to know more about you guys,” he bowed his head towards Misty, “Like you, Myst, what’s your story?”

“Sorry, Ash? It’s Mis _ty._ ” Interrupted Derek, narrowing his eyes.

“I’m sorry, Misty, what is it you do?” Misty opened her mouth to speak, but the squeeze of Derek’s hand on her thigh silenced her.

“Misty’s the leader of the Cerulean gym. Took over from her sisters-”

“Sorry again, does Misty not have a voice?”

Derek narrowed his eyes further and put his arm around Misty’s shoulders.

“She’s very shy,” he stated forcefully. Ash sighed.

“Well then, _Derek_ , why don’t you tell me a little about you?”

 _Tomorrow,_ he thought, _then I’ll see how shy Misty really is._


	4. Chapter Three

_He wanted her, all of her, but they couldn’t risk getting caught. If someone from the party saw them…_

_Every room in the gym was occupied, so she’d led him to the garden, far beyond the partiers and the dancers. He lay her down in the long grass and kissed her hard. They had to be quick. People would start looking for them soon. If they were caught it would all be over. He needed her now, in this moment, but a quick escape was vital._

_Boy was he glad she had worn a dress._

_She lifted it for him, letting him squeeze her buttocks playfully._

_“Impressive,” he growled, stuffing her discarded underwear in his jacket pocket. She smiled and kissed him hungrily._

_Ash heard a rustling, a giggle, in a nearby bush._

_“Looks like someone had the same idea we did,” whispered Misty, cupping his face in her hands._

_“Aren’t you scared we’ll get caught?”_

_“No. Are you? After all you have a girl to lose.”_

_Faith. She’d slipped his mind. Always slipping his mind…_

_“I don’t like her,” Misty whispered in his ear. He wasn’t sure why, but that made him want her even more._

_“You know what? Right now, neither do I.” he pressed his weight on top of her and moaned softly in her ear, “I want you_ so _much.”_

 _“You have me,” she whispered, and pushed her hips up. Ash gasped at the feel of her, pulling her closer towards him. He needed her. Never realised how much he_ needed _her. Her dress was buttoned up and he took a hold of her collar, pulling it. The buttons popped apart easily enough. Revealing her skin, her breasts._

_She would be nineteen soon, nothing like the scrawny tomboy she’d once been. He thought of all the times they had innocently shared a bed or a sleeping bag as children. How naive he had been…_

_Her moaning got louder, and she pressed her lips against his. Ash pushed harder into her, his hips matching the rhythm of her breathing. He felt her climax under him and let himself be carried away, clutching a handful of her dress_

_“Happy birthday, Ash,” she whispered. Suddenly everything hurt, everything was burning…_

“Pikachuu!"

“Bah!” Ash started awake, hot and sweaty in his cabin bed. He clasped his head as Pikachu looked up at his with worried eyes. Cheeks sparking.

“Pika?”

“It was just a dream buddy. No need to worry.” Pikachu smiled and cocked his head. Ash ruffled his fur and patted him off of the bed.

“Pika!” he squeaked again. Ash turned round to see his Pokemon perched on the windowsill, gesturing towards Misty and Derek’s cabin. He was getting into his car, rifle in hand. Misty waved him off at the door. She reminded him of his mother, waving him off on his Pokemon journey and he felt a sudden pang of resentment. He winked at Pikachu.

“We’ll see what’s this Derek’s guy is all about, won’t we Pikachu?” Pikachu grinned, but kept a firm eye on Derek’s rifle, laid carefully along the dashboard of his car. Ash patted him on the head.

“I know buddy, try not to think about it.”

***

He decided to leave Pikachu in the cabin; there would be other times for the mouse to catch up with his old friend. He needed to see Misty alone, if only for a moment. She answered the door as soon as he knocked this time, appearing with an emboldened smile on her face. But Ash still felt the tension, a slight awkwardness underneath their pleasant smiles.

“Hey…”

Ash shuffled from one foot to the other. Misty was leaning again against the doorframe, cradling her arms around her.

_Screw it_

He stepped forward and hugged her. She stood limply in his arms for a second then brought her arms up and around his back. He heard her laugh slightly, and the tension rushed out of him. This was Misty. _Misty._ Even after all these years he still wanted to feel their bond.

Misty led him into the cabin’s lounge, sitting down on the sofa. He noticed she seemed a little more relaxed now and sat down next to her, as close as he dared.

“It’s good to see you, Ash,” she smiled and drew her knees to her chest. He thought he saw her wince slightly, but the expression was fleeting.

“You look well,” he lied. He hadn’t expected it to be like this. They used to be able to talk so easily. Now they were like two strangers waiting for a mutual friend to return. Ash knew she was buying time, that she didn’t really want to talk about Derek, but he had to know.

“Misty? What’s going on?” he asked quietly. Misty sighed and put her chin on her knees. She seemed smaller to Ash, or at least she was trying to make herself seem smaller.

“It’s nothing, Ash.”

“Then why did you invite me round? You said we could talk!”

“Derek’s just…. Insecure. I don’t want him worrying over nothing.”

“You’re lying…”

“What?” Misty’s head snapped up and she glared at him.

“ _My_ Misty was never afraid of anyone.”

“ _Your_ Misty grew up a long time ago.” She hissed. Ash winced and clutched the armrest.

“Well then, I guess the new Misty doesn’t need me anymore,” he stood up to leave storming towards the doorway. There was a clanging of a vase as she clambered out of the sofa.

“Ash, wait!” he felt her hand grasp his arm and he took his hand off of the doorknob, “Please, Ash. Stay.”

“I just wish you still trusted me, Myst.” He whispered.

Misty stepped forward and brought her arms around his chest, pressing her face against his back. Ash grasped her hands hungrily, locking his fingers with hers.

“I do trust you, Ash. If there was something wrong I’d tell you but I’m fine,” she squeezed tighter and sighed, “I’m _fine._ ”

“Ok, Myst. You win.” He loosened her grip and turned to face her, pulling her in, “But, I’m here. Ok? When you do need me.”

She nodded and he kissed her, once, softly on the lips.


	5. Chapter Four

Ash breathed in deeply as he and Pikachu soaked their feet in the lake. They’d discovered it out walking in the woods in the early hours of the morning, Pikachu in the lead, Ash lagging behind with his hands in his pockets. He whistled good-naturedly as they wandered at random through the woods. The close proximity to Mount Moon meant that the trees and clearings sparkled in the sunlight and Ash caught an occasional glimpse of Clefairy peeking out from behind the bushes. He had let Misty drift from his mind as they walked, enjoying the peace of the woods.

But this lake reminded him of her again. He wondered if she even knew it was here.

Pikachu had been the one to insist they go for a walk. The entire purpose of Ash’s holiday was to help him clear his head and so far he had failed miserably. His thoughts invariably lead back to Misty, the way she had been acting, the way Derek made his skin crawl in a way he couldn’t fathom. He’d been to see her three days in a row, only taking Pikachu once. At first they made small talk, avoiding one another’s gaze. But soon she wanted to talk about old times, hear about Brock and his latest conquests in particular. He couldn’t help but smile as he told her about their old friend’s many recent attempts at seducing Nurse Joy. She had covered her face with her hands and shook her head, chuckled, or grasped his knee in shock as he animatedly described his frustration at every new chat-up line. There was a spark of his Misty left, but behind the smiles and the laughter he still knew she was hiding something.

He kicked his feet violently, splashing Pikachu in his frustration. He’d wasted most of the morning already, he’d only have an hour or so to see Misty before Derek returned by the time they got back to the cabins. He rubbed Pikachu’s wet fur.

“Better go back, buddy.”

***

Derek’s car was in the driveway when they finally emerged from the woods and Ash felt his heart sink that he was back so early. He carried a large pack, and Ash briefly wondered if it contained his most recent kill, but shook the thought from his mind. At first he seemed to be too busy checking his rifle to notice Ash, but he looked up at the sound of them approaching.

“Hey mate,” Derek turned to him as he loaded his hunting gear back into his car, “How’s it going?”

Ash raised his eyebrow and shrugged. He could sense Pikachu grasping the back of his leg, whimpering quietly.

“You’re back early,” he tried to let apathy seep into his voice, but he felt it quiver slightly.

“I haven’t left yet. I’m in for a long day today,” Derek patted the boot of his car, “Got a meeting with an associate in Celadon this evening.”

“Celadon?” Ash looked up with interest, “Isn’t that a bit far for a one day meeting?”

“Yeah, I’m staying overnight. I hear Celadon has a great nightlife. Besides, an old friend of mine lives up there. Thought I might meet him for brunch tomorrow. You don’t fancy joining me?”

Ash felt his breath catch in his chest, and he cleared his throat to maintain composure.

“I’m sorry, I’m going in to the Indigo Plateau this afternoon.” He smiled, with genuine warmth this time, “But thank you. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

He watched, calmly, as Derek drove away, no longer able to suppress the faint feeling in his belly. Pikachu looked up at him curiously with bright eyes. The prospect of seeing Misty, without fear of having their meeting cut short, brought back a familiar sense of longing. He suddenly wanted nothing more than to watch her sleep, see her chest rise and fall as she dreamed. Or lay on the grass within reach of her, but still not daring to touch her, as they shared their fears under the sky. He wanted it to be like old times; the time when fame was the dream, not the reality, and the dream could be perfect/

“Ash?”

He spun round, a brief expression of confusion replaced by joy when he saw Misty standing a few steps away from him. She was dressed differently than the past few times they’d met; her high collar was gone and her dress came up shorter, Ash wondered if she felt as liberated by Derek’s absence as he did.

“Hey, Myst,” he stepped forward to hug her, pulling her close. Pikachu shook his head and took his cue to leave, with a squeak of goodbye he bounded back to the cabin and hopped through an open window. Misty giggled as she watched him, looking up at Ash with shiny eyes.

“Come in,” she smiled, turning back towards her own cabin. Ash followed, trying once again to remain calm.

He leant casually against the doorframe and watched her potter about in the kitchen; she offered him a biscuit and took one for herself, nibbling delicately. He sighed deeply and rested his head against the wall as he watched her, marvelling at the way she moved. She still had that spark of confidence as she went about her familiar routine and Ash couldn’t take his eyes off of her. This was how it should be. Comfortable; just the two of them again. He felt like he could drift off to sleep where he stood.

“So, Derek’s gone for the day then?” He wondered if she was as happy as he was at the prospect of time together. She turned to smile at him and he felt his stomach flip, a blush creeping up his neck.

“Yeah, he’ll be back tomorrow afternoon,” she poured water into the kettle, and set it on the stove to boil. She had his back to him, and, as she reached up into the cupboard above her, Ash noticed a deep-purple bruise at the top of her thigh, just visible under the hem of her dress. It was enough to snap Ash out of his daydream, and he pounced forward, grabbing her hips from behind.

“Myst?” he stepped forward, “How did you get that bruise?”

She spun round, cheeks flushed. Ash thought he saw tears in her eyes, but she blinked furiously and they were gone.

“I fell over,” she stammered, trying to pull down the skirts of her dress.

“Want me to take a look at it?” he spoke softly, holding out his hand, “It looks kinda bad, Myst.”

“No, it’s fine. Really. Please.”

She had backed herself against the sink, jumping slightly at the feel of the cabinet. Ash sighed and ran his hand through his hair. He looked at her despairingly.

“You’re not afraid of me, are you?”

She shook her head, but Ash could see her eyes welling up again. He let his hand drop to his side. Suddenly he felt like a boy again, helpless as Misty pressed herself against the sink cabinet. He hated that scared, helpless look in her eye, the one that the Misty he had known would never have allowed. It wasn’t simple fear, but distance, weariness.

“You’ve changed so much, Misty,” he whispered, almost inaudibly. She looked up at him, hands braced against the sink behind her. Her face crumpled as she let out a painful sob.

“It’s been so long, I don’t think we even really recognise each other anymore” Ash opened his mouth to continue, but Misty launched herself forward, pointing a shaky finger at his face.

“Well whose fault is that Ash? Whose fault?” she was still crying, tears streaming down her face in her rage. “Three years! _She’ll get over it_ you said, _It’ll all blow over in a couple of weeks_! But, you know what Ash, it’s three years later and I bet she’d still drag you away from me if she knew you were here.”

“Misty, you know I didn’t mean all that to happen!” he raised his voice above hers, “It just did! I never wanted-”

“Didn’t want what? To leave me? You’d known her three bloody months! I’d known you for _eight years,_ did that mean nothing to you?”

He opened his mouth ineffectually and immediately thought better than to speak. She was right, he had chosen wrong. It seemed strange to him now to admit it, his relationship with Faith had been growing stronger over the years. But he realised now what he knew he should have realised before; he would drop their relationship in a second if it meant having Misty back in his life.

“You know… Part of me hates the fact you’re still with her, after everything she did. But the other part of me is glad you broke our friendship for something worthwhile.”

Ash sighed and rubbed his face and took a step backwards, gratefully sinking into a kitchen chair. Misty followed suit, dropping down to the floor. She looked up at him from beneath her hair. He wanted to tuck it out of her eyes and cup her face, but she was out of reach.

“Nothing was worth that, Misty.” He looked at her earnestly, “I thought I could handle it. I honestly thought all that jealousy would blow over. But time just kept passing and I guess I… I lost control.”

They sat in silence for a while, avoiding one another’s gaze. Ash saw a brief smile flutter across her lips and knew she was having the same thought he was. He slid off of the chair to sit beside her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

“It’s not like she had _no_ reason to be jealous,” he grinned cheekily at her and winked, “Best birthday present I ever got.”

Misty laughed, blushing furiously. He reached out with his spare arm and brushed her flushed face with the back of his hand. She closed her eyes and sighed, expression softening.

“Misty, we could have this same argument for the rest of our lives if we wanted. All I can say is I’m sorry.” He planted a tender kiss on her forehead and let hi lips linger for a moment longer than necessary.

“Come for a walk with me?” he whispered, “I want to show you something.”

***

Her eyes had lit up at the lake, just as he’d wanted. The sun was beginning to set up ahead of them when they arrived and cast a glow across the water. He let go of her hand and sat down at the side, patting the grass beside him.

As she lay down beside him, Ash once again felt that warm sensation in his belly. He stared at her with longing as she stretched her head back and groaned. The cut of her dress revealed the pearly white skin of her neck, with a peak of cleavage tempting his at the neckline. He resisted the urge to touch her, draw her close and took and deep breath. But no amount of deep breaths was enough to suppress the warm tingling in his groin and he drew his knees up to his chest quickly.

Misty looked up at him with a raised eyebrow. For a moment she blushed again, but then a familiar cheekiness slipped into her expression.

“Ash? Are you ok?” she asked innocently, moving to kneel in front of him. Before he could answer she put her hand on his chest and eased him down to the ground, kneeling between his bent legs. Ash gulped, but felt himself getting more and more excited. Her arms were braced on both sides of his chest, her hips moving slowly closer to his groin. She was messing with him and he played along, reaching up to pull her face down to meet his. She startled slightly, but then returned his kiss longingly. He pulled her down towards his and rolled over, laying on top of her.

He undid the top buttons of her dress, letting his free hand roam.

“Ash, wait. Not here,” she whispered, breaking free from his lips.

“Why not?” he breathed huskily, pulling her closer, “We’ve done it outside before.” But Misty pulled away again, cradling her arms around her. She tried making herself look small again, and Ash couldn’t help but notice the look of wild distress in her eyes.

“Please, Ash. I know the sunset’s romantic, but can we please go inside?” she had a note of pleading in her voice and cursed himself for being insensitive. It was getting cold out; the breeze blew through him and made him shiver slightly.

“Of course Myst. Anything you want,” he kissed her softly again, cupping her face with his hands he stroked her cheeks softly, “Anything you want.”

They stayed like that for a moment, suddenly unaware of the chill that was getting harsher. Ash felt her soften under his touch and sigh, shuffling closer to him. In that moment she seemed fragile, softer than the Misty he’d known. He wanted to break the silence, but not the magic.

“Can we go back to yours?” he brought her face up to look him in the eye, “Pikachu won’t be impressed if he gets shoved off of the bed.”

Misty laughed, kissing him again. He let her take his hand and lead the way, not wanting to force her into anything she’d regret. She let her dress hang loose at the collar as he left it, if she turned round he could see her bra, her breast. He gulped and tried to compose himself. They picked up the pace and it took what seemed like seconds to arrive back at her cabin door. As soon as it shut he grabbed her and pushed her against the wall, kissing her hard. She groaned into his mouth, sliding her hands underneath his shirt. In return he slipped his hands up her thighs, desperately grasping.

_Boy was he glad she’d worn a dress._

They broke apart for a moment, as he fumbled wildly with his belt.

Misty pulled the curtains too and turned to face him again, noting his quizzical expression.

“I get nervous,” she whispered. Ash laughed and drew her close again.

“You do remember that we _have_ done this before, right?” he murmured into her ear. He succumbed to the temptation to nibble her earlobe, kiss her neck. His lips fluttered across her skin and she melted into him, moaning. She easily undid the last of her buttons and let her dress fall to the floor. Even in the dim light Ash could make out the shape of her, womanly and beautiful. He reached out and stroked her hips., savouring the feel of her skin against his.

And as they fell together on the sofa, Ash felt finally contented.

This was it. This was what he needed.

To be able to make love to this girl, his oldest friend, and savour her. _Feel_ her.

“Are you ok Ash?” she asked again, with emotion.

Their lips met again hungrily as he nodded. This night he could savour.

Tonight he could _feel_ her.


	6. Chapter Five

Some time later, exactly how much time had passed was difficult to tell, Ash became aware he was in Misty’s bed. His arms were wrapped tightly around her, even in his dazed state. He planted a kiss on her temple.

“You look cute in my shirt.”

She smiled sleepily and murmured a nonsensical reply.

He knew in the morning they’d have to part, but for now at least he could have her here. It had been so long, he’d forgotten what she looked like when she was asleep. The way her lips parted. Just so. He knew that by tomorrow they would have to part again, they’d both be thinking more clearly. But for now he was content to lie next to.

Content to watch her sleep like he used to.

* * *

He woke up alone some time later, but the dim light from the hallway gave her away. She was sitting at the kitchen table, warming her hands on a mug of hot chocolate and still wearing his t-shirt. She smiled up at him when he entered the room, but the expression on her face was swiftly overshadowed by worry.

“Ash…I…” she pushed away the mug and wrung her fingers together.

He put his hand up to silence her.

“Misty, you can’t tell me you think this was a mistake,’

“Ash, we shouldn’t have, not now,” she stood up and stepped closer, taking his hand, “You, you have Faith. And I have Derek.” She smiled weakly.

“Do you love him?” he asked abruptly, reaching out to grasp her forearms. She nodded and opened her mouth to speak. But he pressed his lips against hers to stop her, locking her in a passionate kiss. She was pressed against the kitchen surface and Ash scalded his forearm on the still-warm kettle as he wrapped his arms around her. He didn’t care. He jut couldn’t hear her say it.

“You used to love me,” he whispered, breaking away briefly. Tears had filled her eyes and he wondered briefly if he’d hurt her.

“But you always loved her.”

She had whispered as softly as she could, but in the dim silence of the kitchen her words rang clear. When he opened his mouth to reply the words that came out never once consciously crossed his mind, but he knew they were true nonetheless.

“I never loved her.”

They came crashing back together again. Her new fervour surprised him; she’d confirmed her love for Derek only moments ago. But he let her push him back towards her room, back down onto the bed.

Neither of them turned the light on before falling into the bed, in the dim moonlight he could make out her hair, vague features of her face. Her lips were parted again, her eyes sparkled down at him. He thought he felt a tear drop onto his chest, but he couldn’t be sure. They were both scrabbling with his boxers, pulling them off desperately. She was taking charge this time and he lay back, welcoming her on top of him. She was hot, and he moaned softly as she moved her hips against his. He felt more passionate this time; it wasn’t just a moment of lust to later regret, some sort of mutual understanding had passed between them and he grasped her hips hungrily, bringing her closer.

He wanted to see her, despite her fears and grasped her fingertips, leading them towards the table lamp. She froze momentarily, tugging at the hem of his shirt with her free hand.

“Keep it on if you want,” he whispered, “I just need to see your face.”

Her body loosened and she flicked the lamp switch. The room was illuminated and Ash looked up at her. She had been crying, that much was obvious, he cupped her face and wiped her tears and she softly moved her hips. The bed made a dull, rhythmic creak as they moved together. Their eyes remained locked for what seemed like eternity, until Misty’s breathing became heavier, and she gripped his hair tightly. When he was sure she had climaxed, he rolled on top of her and let himself go, revelling in her moans and panting lips.

Afterwards they lay together, their breathing awkward and uneven. He could hear her heart beat slow, then her breath caught in her throat.

“Myst?” he whispered, “Are you ok?”

“Derek’s back!” she jumped up frantically, “I heard his car door.”

She pulled off his shirt quickly and threw it at him, drawing her robe around her.

“Quick! Ash, you have to get out of the window, he can’t know you’re here.”

She opened the back window quickly; he could see his bedroom window opposite. If he made a dash…

“Quick!” Misty hissed again, handing him the rest of his clothes. The front door slammed, and Ash heard footsteps pounding nearby. Now was his chance. He turned back to kiss her, passionately one final time, and ran towards the bushes by his cabin. He was completely naked, cowering in the undergrowth and for the first time in his holiday he felt glad there wasn’t another soul around to see him.

* * *

Misty turned round and tried to look pleasantly surprised at Derek, who had entered the lounge. But his face was dark, and he swayed slightly as he stepped forward.

“Did you miss me then?” he demanded. Misty could smell alcohol on his breath and she quivered.

“Yes, it’s just… I wasn’t expecting you back to soon.”

“The deal fell through,” he growled, “Didn’t see much point in staying.”

Misty was suddenly made very aware of being naked under her robe as his eyes leered over her. Without another word he stepped even closer, gripped the back of her neck and brought her to her knees. Misty tried to hide her disgust as he unbuckled his jeans, took her face gruffly in his palm and guided her mouth towards him.

“There,” he said simply, “Just what I need.”

He thrust violently into her, and she gagged. She felt violated again, the memory of being with Ash tainted and like a distant dream. She could almost feel the tingle of his lips on her temple and she tried desperately to focus on that memory as Derek let out his frustration on her.

She cried out as he pulled her hair, earning herself a slap.

“Stupid bitch, be careful,” he pulled to her feet by her hair and shoved her onto the bed. She let herself go limp as always, he always wanted more when she fought back, and tried to block out the pounding of his voice.

_You’re useless. This is your fault. I don’t know why I bother._

* * *

Ash looked out from his cabin window at them; the light in their room was on, illuminating everything inside. He knew it would do him no good to watch them, but his mind would not focus on anything other than the two of them, writhing together on the bed. Derek was biting her neck, and he could almost hear her moaning in pleasure.

He had honestly believed she still loved him, but he knew then he was just a kid to her; something to play with while her man was away. He threw his clothes at the mantelpiece, dislodging a vase, which shattered in the fireplace.

There was a brief silence as Ash listened out for the tell-tale grunt of Pikachu waking up, but his little friend was still a stead-fast sleeper and his quiet snores continued. Ash was glad, Pikachu had hated to see him in his recent state and he knew the mouse was cry and protest as he poured himself a generous serving of spirit.

He may as well make a night of it.


	7. Chapter Six

_“Gyrados! Use Hyper Beam!”_

_“Hypno, use confusion!”_

_Hypno’s attack hit first, throwing Gyrados into a frenzy. The dragon flailed, thrashing its tail wildly. Misty gasped and reached for her Pokeball._

_“Gyrados! Return!” she shouted, taking aim. But Gyrados continued to thrash wildly before her. She yelped in pain as Gyrados’ tail connected with her back, launching her painfully into the pool. The water above her was illuminated, before sinking into blackness._

_She broke the surface of the water, gasping painfully. Her ears hurt and everything was dull and muffled. But the noise surrounding her soon drew into focus._

_Someone was screaming, Misty turned round, struggling to keep herself afloat, to see her opponent, a young girl, sobbing in Daisy’s arms._

_“Misty! Get out of the fucking water!”_

_She swam quickly to the side, taking Violet’s offer of a hand to hoist herself out of the water. Someone was shouting now, the girl’s father, accompanying his daughter on her last gym battle, was yelling furiously at Lily._

_“You let that fucking beast get out of control!”_

_“Sir, it wasn’t our fault! I’m sorry! Hypno’s Confusion…”_

_“You’re trying to blame my daughter for this?!” he pointed towards Misty, “My daughter’s Pokemon is dead thanks to your sister’s incompetence”_

_Misty saw her sister’s glance awkwardly towards her, their eyes shining. She’d only been under the water for seconds._

_How?_

_“I’ll report you to the fucking League! I’ll shut this place down!”_

_“Sir, please calm down…”_

_Misty stopped listening, turned towards the platform where non-water Pokemon could battle. The roof above had collapsed, debris littered the water. She wondered briefly if she’d been knocked out, the world was still hazy. But there, clearly visible under the wreckage, Hypno’s hand lay still._

* * * 

Ash waited until Derek left the next morning before going out to his car. He could sense Pikachu’s eyes watching him sadly from the window as he loaded his bags into the boot; his friend had wanted so badly for his master to be happy, Misty had given them both hope. Ash had packed his bags the night before, nursing his wounded pride with drink and ignoring Pikachu’s pleas for him to reconsider. The pound of every bag hitting the floor of hit car boot now echoed in his head and he leant over the bumper slightly, massaging his temples. He heard the door to Misty’s cabin open softly and paused, steadying his breathing. 

“Ash?” she whispered, her voice shaking, “Where are you going?” 

“Away from you,” he said simply. Her breath caught in her throat and for a moment his heart went out to her. Still, he answered the question he knew she dare not ask. 

“I just can’t bear to look at you.” 

“Why? Ash, if you think we went to fast then I’m sorry! Please,” she grasped his hand, “Please don’t leave me!” He snatched his arm back and slammed his car door. 

“Too fast?” he snarled and leant towards her, “Like how fast you jumped back into bed with _him_ after I left last night?” He turned his back to her and continued arranging his bags in the car, but the rage he thought he felt had subsided with his outburst, leaving him feeling empty. He felt her come up close behind him and straightened up, not willing to show any weakness anymore. Her arms encircled his chest and he sighed, clasping her hands with his own. 

_What’re you doing to me Misty?_

“Ash,” she choked into the back of his shirt, “Please, save me.” 

“How can I save you if you won’t let me in?” 

“I’m scared.” 

He turned around to face her, placing his hands gently on her forearms. She was shaking and he tried to steady her, planting a kiss on her forehead and resting his own there. They stood like that for some time, until Ash had gathered the strength to take her hand and lead her back to her cabin.

* * * 

_“Misty?” Daisy knocked gently on her bedroom door, not bothering to wait for a reply, “Misty, sweetheart, you need to get out. This isn’t good for you.”_

_“I’ve ruined everything Daisy,” she sobbed, reaching out for her sister’s arms._

_“Misty, what happened wasn’t your fault. And we’ll get through it.”_

_“Get through it?! Have you seen the bills coming in Daisy? We can barely afford lighting anymore. The League fine has wiped our savings clean!”_

_“Misty, look, things are bad, I know that, I’m just worried about you. You need to get out of the gym.”_

_Misty grunted and turned away._

_“Listen, a friend of mine is in town, I was thinking of setting the two of you up.”_

_“No, Daisy, no. No blind dates.” She couldn’t help but smile, despite her frustration._

_“Com’on Misty, Derek’s a Pokemon Researcher. And he’s twenty six, might make a change from the immature Pokemon trainers you usually go for.” She poked her tongue out, teasing her. Misty sighed, she had been cooped up for a while…_

_“Ok fine, give_ Derek _a ring.”_

* * *

Misty paused and stirred her coffee quietly; Ash had seated himself opposite at her kitchen table and the two of them sat in awkward silence, fiddling with the cutlery she had left there from the night before. He still didn’t understand, but he wanted her to finish saying whatever she felt had to be said before he interrupted; if he rushed her she might close up again, push him away. 

“That’s when Derek offered to help… He was so sweet…” Ash noticed a plaintive note to her voice and grasped her hand across the table. 

“You told me you loved him.” It was more of a question than a statement, and the hope shone in his eyes. 

She chuckled ironically, “I lied,” she whispered. 

“Why?” he asked softly, cocking his head to the side. 

“Because I have no choice, Ash. He owns the Gym. If I finish with him I’ll…. My _sisters…_ we’ll lose everything.” 

Ash rubbed his face and groaned. 

“Then why are you telling me this Misty? We’re through, I get it,” He forced himself out of the chair and paced the short distance across the kitchen. “Why not just end it now-” 

“My sisters don’t know.” 

“What?” Ash turned back to face her, not bothering to mask the shock on his face. 

“If they knew, they would have never agreed to it. We would have lost everything anyway.” 

“So you’re prostituting yourself to protect your family and they don’t even realise you’re doing it?” Ash threw his arms open and stared wide-eyed at her. Misty lowered her eyes. Ash’s face softened and he stepped closer, gripping the back of his chair. 

“You have to tell them, Myst.” 

“Why?” she looked straight at him, a little of her old defiance showing in her eyes. 

“Because you’re their little sister, you know they’d never let you do this to yourself. And because you need to put yourself first.” He paused for a moment, looking thoughtful, “What… what if I bought the Gym out? Then your money troubles would be over and you’d be rid of him.” 

“You’d…. you’d do that for me?” For a moment Misty’s eyes lit up, and she let a grin work its way into her features, but it was quickly shadowed by doubt. “No, Derek would never let you. He wouldn’t give it up.” 

“Wouldn’t give you up, you mean?” 

Misty sighed and shrugged. Ash knelt in front of her and gripped her forearms tightly. 

“Misty, please, look me in the eye and tell me: Is that the only reason you won’t agree? That he won’t give up the Gym?”

She raised her eyes and nodded. 


	8. Chapter Seven

That night Ash sat in the darkness of his room, cradling a drink in his hand. The lights in Misty’s cabin flicked on and off periodically, giving him brief glimpses of her relationship with Derek. They looked so happy, so in love.

_I Lied._

He wondered why he hadn’t noticed before, the way their looks didn’t match. It could be mistaken for love on both sides, but there was a sadness in Misty’s eyes when she looked at Derek that could easily be taken for reverence. And Derek, well, the arrogance Ash had seen in him from the beginning was suddenly explained. He’d got himself the perfect little lie, a girl who could claim to love him and a business to support him. Ash wondered how they had gone about it, Misty signing over the gym without her sister’s knowledge. Of course, if the gym was under Misty’s control then perhaps her sister’s wouldn’t have been informed, but they’d been more involved in matters over the past few years…

_We’ll lose everything._

It struck him as odd that even he hadn’t heard about the incident before now; the League must surely inform the Pokemon Master about such cases. Even if it had happened before he had been given the title, the League knew the two of them had a history, if they hadn’t told him directly they surely would have assumed he had been told and kept him updated?

He backed away from the window over to the phone in his cabin. Brock had argued against having it, saying he needed a break from his responsibilities. But the League had insisted and Brock had relented, on the assurance Ash would only be contacted in the case of an emergency. This wasn’t an emergency, but Ash reasoned his first few days at the cabin had been far from relaxing, a quick phone call couldn’t worsen matters. He punched in the now familiar numbers.

“Pokemon League Headquarters,” the image of a smartly dressed receptionist popped up.

“Hello, this is Ash Ketchum…”

“Ash! Of course,” The receptionist beamed at him, “What can I do for you?”

“Erm… Well,” he paused, briefly wondering what he even wanted, “I have a question about the Cerulean gym.”

The woman’s face darkened, “Yes, sir. What did you want to know?”

“There was an incident, I’m sure you know what I’m referring too?” she nodded, “Well, I want to know why I wasn’t informed. I’ve been hearing rumours, and, well, I should be told directly shouldn’t I?”

She put her hand up to silence him.

“Sir, I’m sorry, the whole thing was frankly an embarrassment to the League. The gym was fined heavily, of course,” she shuffled some papers on her desk, “But the entire affair was sorted well before you became Master. We didn’t think it pertinent to trouble you with such information on a formal basis.”

Ash nodded.

“Besides, we assumed that you would have heard about the incident sooner, given your history with the Cerulean gym leader,” Ash blushed, “Brock of the Pewter gym was also given a full briefing of the situation after it happened.”

Of course Brock would be told. Every gym leader, as ambassadors of the League, must have been warned of the consequences of allowing their Pokemon to get out of control. And it must have happened in the final stages of Ash’s battle to become Pokemon Master. Brock must have deliberately kept it from him, knowing how it would have distracted him.

“Oh… Well, maybe it slipped his mind. Could you at least tell me who owns the Cerulean gym now?”

The woman looked momentarily shocked, then regained her composure.

“Why… the Waterflower sisters of course still own the gym, sir. The League would never have taken away control from them. Misty still officially runs the gym but she told us that revenue from her sisters performances went some way to paying off the fine…”

Ash cleared his throat to interrupt, muttered his thanks and hung up. Of course the League hadn’t been informed that Derek had bought the gym, Misty’s sisters would have been told immediately. But that meant that nothing was official, if Misty owned the gym in the eyes of the League then Derek could have no claim to it. The League would side with her without hesitation. And she knew it.

Ash leant back in his chair and covered his face with his hands. How could he be so _stupid_?

He dialled again, nodding his head to the dial tone.

“Why the long face, Ash?”

He looked up to see Daisy waving at him through the monitor and couldn’t help but smile. The two of them had grown close before he and Misty parted ways and he had to admit he’d missed her over the years. They made small talk in the way of old friends until Daisy suddenly cleared her throat.

“You’ve got bad timing you know, Misty’s out of town.”

Ash feigned surprise and she giggled, “She’s away with the boyfriend,” she winked, “She couldn’t mope after you forever, lad.”

He tried to ignore her, “Yeah, I heard she’d started seeing someone… What’s he like?”

“Derek? Oh, he’s lovely. So sweet. I set them up about six months ago after, ahem, well, we had a few financial difficulties. She was getting so stressed over everything, I thought she could use a break’ She smiled, mistaking Ash’s expression of distaste for concern. “Don’t worry! That’s all sorted out now. Misty deals with all of that stuff and she’s pretty good with finances.”

Ash snorted and muttered under his breath.

“Excuse me?”

“I said I have to shoot,” Ash smiled, weakly, “Only a quick catch up I’m afraid.”

He put the phone down before Daisy had time to protest and groaned. Part of him had thought until that moment that he could change Misty’s mind about staying: that he could convince her to be with him. But now it was obvious that Misty’s feelings for Derek ran deeper; the gym wouldn’t be a problem if she truly wanted to leave him; the only explanation was that she wanted to be with him. Ash had lost his chance, she’d found someone else. How could he blame her? He’d done just the same; only he had let someone else get in the way of their friendship. Yet now, as he sat alone in his room, he couldn’t explain even to himself how he had let Faith come between them. How he could have let himself destroy their friendship. He could only remember the blind panic that had resulted in his decision to choose Faith; the realisation that if he didn’t, people would know about his relationship with Misty and, if everyone knew, suddenly there was pressure for him to not screw it up. Suddenly everything could go wrong.

Faith was easier, he never loved her, despite what people thought. If he never loved her then losing her wouldn’t be painful. Losing Misty would be the end. But he _had_ lost her; what was supposed to be a few weeks of keeping their distance had turned into three years without his best friend.

Ash caught another glimpse of Misty through her kitchen window, but this time she saw him and smiled back sadly. A lump caught in his throat as he realised that sad smile had become a fixture on her face, but it had settled itself there long before she had met Derek. He’d put it there when he chose Faith and the easy life that came with her.

Ash realised his anger at her was misplaced; the only person he could be angry with was himself. Misty had loved him, yet he’d never once told her he loved her back. He thought back on all those times he could have swallowed his pride and admitted he felt something for her, times when the moment was perfect. He had assumed she knew, assumed that just knowing was enough; not realising that she needed to be _told._

But he hadn’t told her. Not once. He’d been too obsessed with the secrets, hoping to make everyone think they were still just good friends. Even when he knew they weren’t; that friends didn’t meet at midnight to steal kisses in the hallway or place their sleeping bags close together so they could hold hands in the dark. He was only deluding himself that they could pretend otherwise.

His bottle was empty now, and he felt the slow numbing sensation of sleep overwhelming him. He didn’t bother undressing, just turned off the light and collapsed on the bed, letting Pikachu’s soft snores lull him to sleep.


	9. Chapter Eight

_The clatter of cutlery on the table marked the end of the meal. Misty looked up across the table at her companion._

_“This has been lovely, Derek, thank you.” the smile on her face was genuine, she couldn’t remember the last time she had been this contented and made a mental note to thank her sister._

_Derek wiped his mouth with his napkin and signalled for the bill. Misty’s smile faltered briefly._

_“Oh, we’re going so soon? We’ve just fini-“ Derek held up a hand to silence her._

_“Sweetheart, it’s a full moon. Thought you might like a stroll.” The waiter placed the bill on the table and, without looking, Derek placed a handful of notes on top of it. Offering Misty his arm he led her out of the restaurant._

_Once outside he took her hand, grasping it tightly in his own. Misty looked up at him and blushed slightly. They began the walk in easy silence but the evening sea air was uncomfortably chilly compared to the warmth of the restaurant and Misty shivered involuntarily._

_“You cold?”_

_She smiled gently, “Just a little.”_

_Derek smiled and took off his jacket, wrapping it around her shoulders he drew her closer._

_“If you’re cold, do you want to come back to my apartment?”_

_Without hesitation Misty nodded. Then he kissed her_

_* * *_

They had moved quickly. Too quickly in her sisters eyes. But they couldn’t ignore the look of happiness whenever she spoke of him, or the gleaming way she looked at him.

“He’s so charming.” She had gushed.

Her smiles convinced them. Even when the next bills came through, printed in black on red, she refused to falter around them.

* * *

_Just over a month after they started dating Derek opened his door to find Misty, glassy eyed and distressed._

_“We can barely afford our bills, Derek,” she whispered before he had a chance to speak, “My sisters don’t know how bad it is but I’m so scared we might lose the gym!”_

_She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him. The beat of his heart was comforting, made her feel safe._

_“It’s just all so much Derek, I don’t know how we’re going to cope!” her words were punctuated with sobs and Derek wrapped his arms around her protectively._

_“Shh, Misty. It’s ok, it’s ok.” He held her there for a moment until her sobs subsided, “I can help you, you know…” Misty looking up at him, wiping the tears from her eyes._

_“How?”_

_“I get a good wage, I have some money saved up, I could lend you what you need.”_

_“No! I couldn’t, what if I couldn’t pay you back?” She broke free of his arms, shaking her head._ It would help so much though _…_

_“Well… I don’t know then, maybe if I invested in the gym itself, like a business deal?”_

What if my sisters find out? About this? About the debt?

_“My sisters would never agree to that, Derek, even though they love you so much…”_

They trust me… finally…

_“Well then we don’t tell them. I’ll give you the money you need, contractually I’ll own the gym but you keep control and pay me back when you can. It’ll stay open, your sisters won’t lose faith in you, and you don’t have to worry about being in debt with unfriendly people.”_

_Misty turned from him, walking over to the window. From Derek’s apartment she could see the gym, usually illuminated in the dark, now only the gate lights were on. But in her mind she could see the cracked paint and the unmown grass, feel the chill of the corridors and the ice cold water against her skin. Derek’s reflection in the window got bigger and bigger as he placed a hand on her shoulder._

_“Misty, you know it makes sense. We’ll do up a contract and everything. My lawyer’s a decent guy, he won’t gossip. Just let me help,” he turned her to face him, “_ please _”_

_Misty swallowed the lump rising in her throat and nodded._

_* * *_

The next day Misty signed on the dotted line and went home to her sisters to tell them everything was under control.

The next week he hit her for the first time.

_* * *_

_When Derek finally opened his front door it was obvious she had come at the wrong time. His hair was dishevelled and his eyes red and watery. She peered round him into the gloom of his apartment. Beer cans and food wrappers littered the coffee table, some dislodged onto the floor by the feet of Derek’s guest. Misty recognised him as Derek’s lawyer._

_“I’m sorry, want me to come back later?” she clutched the bottle of wine and the film she had brought with her closer to her chest._

_“No,” Derek grunted, “It’s fine. You remember Tom, right?”_

_Misty nodded shyly and settled down in Derek’s armchair. He threw a beer into her lap and sat back down next to Tom, feet resting on the table. Misty cast a glance around her. From Derek’s haggard appearance she gathered that he had been busy the past week, the fact that she had hardly seen him and the state of his apartment only confirmed this. She wondered if he’d appreciate her offering to tidy it for him. After all he’d done so much for her…_

_“Giovanni’s pulled out of the deal, says it’s too risky.”_

_Misty looked back at Tom. What had he said?_

_“You’re working with Giovanni?”_

_Derek whipped his head round to glare at her, “Quiet, this doesn’t concern you.”_

_Misty shrank back at his tone but said nothing else. Stress. That was it._

_Derek turned back to Tom._

_“So if Giovanni’s out, where does that leave us? I can’t afford to loose out on this, Tom. If this deal doesn’t go through we’re broke!” he turned to Misty, “Go get us some more beers from the kitchen will you?”_

_As Misty got out of her chair Tom leaned forward, lowering his voice with little success._

_“You know, mate, you could make a fortune out of her. I know a guy…”_

_“Shut up!” Derek growled, “She’s mine, no man is going near her.”_

_Misty let out the breath she had been holding in. As she reached for the fridge door she realised her hands were shaking._

He stood up for me, _her mind raced._ It’s ok because he stood up for me…

_When she stepped back into the living room the tension between the two men was obvious. She looked from Derek’s scowling face to Tom, who moved to stand._

_“Just think about it mate, we’re in for a rough time. Use all the assets you have.” He winked at Misty as he passed, slamming the apartment door as he left. Misty turned to Derek, eyes blazing._

_“What was that about?” she slammed the beers on the table and Derek jumped to his feet._

_“That’s none of your business!”_

_“He was talking about me!” she took a step forward, the coffee table now the only thing that separated them, “Don’t think I didn’t hear him. He was talking about you prostituting me!”_

_“Isn’t that what you’re already doing?” Derek smirked and folded his arms as Misty drew her hands to her mouth. She shook her head gently and lowered her eyes._

_“You said you cared about me” Shock gave way to anger as she looked up to his smirk turn to a leer, “You bastard!”_

_The flurry of movement was too quick to register, the explosion of pain in her face disorientating, but when Misty opened her tear-blurred eyes she found herself on the floor. Raising her hands again to her face she found blood dripping from her nose._

_“Misty… I… I’m sorry” Derek was crouched down beside her his face a genuine mixture of pity and regret. He steadied her shoulders with his hands, “I don’t know what came over me, I’m sorry.”_

_Misty said nothing, shock still coursing through her. Derek turned her chin to face him._

_“It’ll never happen again. I promise,” he attempted a smile, “I love you.”_

_While her mind screamed at her to run, to get out now and never look back his words passed through her and she found herself opening her mouth to speak._

_“I love you too…”_

_When he moved his hands to unbutton her jeans she stayed still and silent. But in her head she was still screaming in agony._

_* * *_

Derek left at the break of dawn that morning, loading his truck with supplies and kissing her like a loving husband. Despite the pain in her stomach and groin Misty dragged herself out of bed to watch him go and faked her smile whilst the memory of his latest attack on her ran clear in her mind. As his truck rumbled off into the distance she glanced across the clearing to Ash’s cabin. His curtains were open but she could see him lying, sprawled out on the bed.

Her instincts screamed at her to tell him, but she knew the moment she opened her mouth her throat would close and betray her. It sounded so easy in her head. Tell him and escape. Tell him and it could all be over. But she knew it wouldn’t be so simple in reality. Derek had made it quite clear. Leave and die.

Stay and die? Sometimes it seemed like there were options, other times it seemed like life would lead her down the path of destruction whichever way she decided to go.

“Pika!”

She looked down into the brown eyes of Ash’s most faithful companion.

“Pikachu! When did you sneak upon me?” she bent down to stroke him behind the ears and he purred happily. “If Ash gets up tell him I’ll be round soon. I have to wash first.”

Pikachu nodded and bounded back to Ash’s cabin happily, turning to wave at her before disappearing round the back.

Misty turned back into the cabin and immediately set about getting herself ready. As the bath ran she inspected herself in the mirror, relieved to see the damage hadn’t been noticeable. Derek had refrained from hitting her where it showed, other than the occasional slap to the face. Part of her wished he wouldn’t be so cautious; a black eye or cut lip would give the game away. Take things out of her control.

But why was she hiding her bruises from Ash? Deep down she knew he could save her.

But she was scared. Scared that she deserved it. Scared Ash would leave her if he knew the danger he’d be putting himself into. Scared Derek would realise the two of them had slept together. Scared of risking her sister’s disappointment.

So instead she lowered herself into the bath, wincing slightly, and wiped away the blood on her thighs.

* * *

“Pika!” Ash opened one groggy eye to see Misty perched on the side of his bed. She had draped a blanket around him and picked up the empty bottle of wine off the floor. He smiled weakly.

“I may have overdone it slightly,” he grumbled, head throbbing. Misty giggled.

“A little? You finished this off in one night? What were you thinking?” He moved to sit up, but she pushed gently on his shoulder, “No, stay there until you feel up for breakfast. I’ll have it ready for you.”

Pikachu padded out into the kitchen behind her, his stomach grumbling. Misty opened the cupboard to find his food, smiling gently at Brock’s handwritten label. As Pikachu began to tuck in Ash wandered into the kitchen.

“You should have stayed in bed…”

“I wanted to see you,” His words rang true, the bitterness from the night before had melted away and he smiled warmly.

“Well sit down, I’ll make a start on breakfast.”

Ash looked thoughtfully at her.

“What?”

“If we got married I could bring you breakfast in bed,” he murmured. Misty’s eyed widened in shock.

“Didn’t you ever think about that?” he asked gently, “Back when we were kids?” she smiled but said nothing so he continued, the fog of a hangover lifting, “Because I did! I always thought we were supposed to, or something; even though we bickered. And everyone else seemed to think so too, like it was obvious or something…”

He laughed nervously at Misty’s silence and lowered his eyes.

“Sorry,” he muttered, “I guess I’m still a little drunk.

Misty clutched the kitchen counter and took a deep breath. Could she do this?

_Tell him._

Now was the time. Misty opened her mouth to speak.

“Ash?”

He looked up, but not towards her. And she followed suit, looking towards the door.

“Faith…” Ash whispered and looked back at Misty, eyes wide. Misty felt her heart sink.

“You have a back door?” she whispered, Ash nodded and without another word she turned her back on him. As she reached for the door handle he touched her shoulder, and as she turned back to face him he kissed her gently, wiping away a stray tear with his thumb.

“Myst, I’m sorry…” he whispered as he closed the door behind her.


	10. Chapter Nine

Ash forced a smile and opened the door, Faith’s smile beamed back at him.

“Surprise!” she held her arms wide.

“Faith!” he faltered slightly, “What are you doing here?”

“You aren’t pleased to see me?”

“What? Of course I am!” he wrapped his arms around her, “It’s just a shock that’s all.”

“A nice one I hope,”

“Of course,” he took her hands and glanced briefly out the window, only to see Misty disappear through the front door of her cabin. He sighed.

_Better get this over with._

“Speaking of shocks,” he began, “You’ll never guess who’s staying in the cabin next door…”

Faith raised an eyebrow, “Who?”

“Misty… and her boyfriend,”

“Misty’s here?” Faith murmured and took a step back, her face pained.

“Yes,” he whispered, “but I swear, before I got here I knew nothing about it-“

“Then why didn’t you call me when you got here? Or Brock?”

“Because I didn’t think it was a big deal!” he tried to grip her arms. “She means _nothing_ to me anymore!”

“Nothing?” she smirked, “Then you won’t mind if we go round so I can introduce myself to her boyfriend.”

“And to her.”

“Sorry?”

“He, Derek, that’s his name. Derek doesn’t know that we used to be friends…” Faith’s expression softened slightly, “I pretended I’d never met her.”

“You did that? For me?” she embraced him and kissed his cheek, “I’ve taught you well.”

“Yeah,” he whispered, “For you…”

“Well then, you can go tell them we’ll be joining them for dinner.”

“ _Faith…”_

“If the two of you have been acting like strangers then it shouldn’t be a problem, should it?” Faith glanced towards the window, “But if you’re worried, don’t be. I won’t breathe a word to her boyfriend. I’ll just play along.”

**

With a certain amount of trepidation Ash raised his fist to knock on Misty’s door that night. He’d spoken to Derek earlier in the afternoon, after his truck had rumbled back down the track, and been invited round without even requesting. He wondered if Derek had mentioned Faith to Misty…

“Ash!” Derek opened the door almost immediately, holding his hand out to Ash before turning to Faith, “And who’s _this_?”

“Er… this is my girlfriend, Faith.”

“Nice to meet you,” She shook Derek’s hand, he turned towards the kitchen, “I forgot to tell Misty you were bringing a guest Ash, but she made plenty of food.”

He turned to the kitchen.

“Hey, Misty!” he called, “Come here!”

Ash briefly caught the smirk on Faith’s face before Misty emerged from the kitchen, her own smile briefly eclipsed by a look of confusion. Derek put his arm around her.

“Meet Ash’s lovely girlfriend, Faith.” She held out her hand to take Misty’s.

“Nice to meet you,” she whispered smoothly.

“You too.” Misty turned to Ash, fists clenched and mouth set, “The two of you are just in time for dinner. We’re-“

She was cut off by Derek, who reached forward to grab Faith’s wrist.

“Faith!” Derek grinned, “Is that an _engagement_ ring I see on your finger?”

Ash’s heart sank as he raised his eyes towards Misty in time to see the look of shock as Derek’s words sank in.

_How could I not tell her?_

“It is,” she held out her hand for Derek to admire, “It’s beautiful, isn’t it? Ash gave it to me just after he became Pokemon Master.”

Ash looked towards Misty; she glared at him briefly before turning her back and walking into the kitchen. He stepped forward without thinking but Faith gripped his arm tight, shooting him a warning glance.

“Misty, do you need a hand with those plates?” Derek called, “Hang on I’ll be right back,” Derek followed her into the kitchen. Ash turned to Faith.

“Did you have to be so cruel about it?” he hissed.

“Excuse me?” Faith glared back at him, “If you care so much about her feelings why are you pretending not to know her? Ash, you’re not fooling anyone.”

“What?”

“It’s obvious, she still has feelings for you and you’re trying to protect her,” Faith leaned forward and lowered her voice, “Do you not remember the way that bitch tried to ruin our relationship? You don’t owe her anything, Ash. I’m proud of you for keeping your distance, don’t ruin it tonight.”

Before Ash could reply Misty and Derek returned with dinner. A brief sense of dread filled him as he remembered Misty’s cooking, but by the look of what was on his plate she may have improved since they were twelve.

“So, have you two kids set a date for the wedding?” Derek poured everyone a glass of wine and winked at Faith. She gripped Ash’s hand, tightly.

“Not yet,” she smiled up at him, “We’ve just got round to telling everyone.” She turned to Misty, “I’m surprised Ash didn’t mention it.”

“I didn’t think it was any of their business, Faith.” Ash avoided Misty’s gaze, but he felt her eyes burning into him and his cheeks flushed.

“Well then,” Derek grinned, “How about a toast to celebrate?” he raised his glass, “To couples everywhere. Good luck to you both. May marriage be as pleasant for you as I hope it will one day be for Misty and I.” he took a sip of wine before lowering his gaze to Misty, “ _If_ you’ll have me, of course.”

Ash said nothing, but felt Faith’s grip on his hand tighten. Misty had been midway through a sip of wine and swallowed hastily.

“Wow!” Derek looked around him, “I can see I’ve increased the tension there. I guess that’s something we can talk about later, in private, Misty.” He looked at her meaningfully. Ash cleared his throat.

“Sorry guys, can I use your bathroom?”

He squeezed Faith’s hand automatically before scurrying off through the kitchen. The cabin’s layout was similar to his own and he crossed the kitchen floor to the hallway that separated living from sleeping area. The bathroom door was next to the bedroom and he paused briefly at the open bedroom door; the memory of lying there with Misty stung and he hurried along to the next room. In the bathroom he braced his hands on the edge of the sink and took a few deep breaths, willing his tears to go away. Staring at himself in the bathroom mirror he saw himself for what he really was. A coward.

_I should have told her._

_I should have broken it off with Faith._

_I should be marrying Misty._

_I’ve lost her, for good this time._

The last thought was the most painful; not just regret but the realisation that things were once again out of his control. He stood there for some time, breathing deeply, before splashing his face with cold water. Turning for a towel he found himself clasping at empty space and walked back to the kitchen to dry his hands.

“Myst!” she was by the table, attempting to open another bottle of wine. Ash held out his hands to take it from her.

“Misty… I… I’m sorry,” he passed the bottle back to her, his fingertips brushing against her own, “I’m sorry you had to find out that way.”

“Ash!” she turned to him, “We’re done. Okay?”

“Misty…” he moved forward to take her hands but she flinched away, backing up against the table.

“No! Ash.” She hissed, “This is it. We’re over. It’s obvious I’m still just a plaything to you. Just go.”

They stood there for a moment, eyes locked, but Misty’s stubbornness won over his own. He saw nothing but anger in her and fought every urge to pull her to him regardless. She moved to leave and he let her pass, this time avoiding her gaze.

_Tell her you love her._

But his mouth refused to listen, his throat closed up as she walked past him, afraid that tears would fall if he dared to speak. He stood there for a few moments to compose himself and followed her back into the living room. Derek and Faith were still talking animatedly, Derek oblivious to the tension, Faith attempting to increase it.

“Are you ok? Ash?” Derek looked up at him, eyebrow raised, “You were gone for a while. Misty’s cooking get to you?”

“Yeah… I’m just feeling a bit peaky, that’s all. Mind if we call it a night?”

**

Ash dragged Faith by the arm behind him before she could protest. The tension in Misty and Derek’s cabin may have been building throughout the night, his own sense of awkwardness and guilt following suit, but Faith had revelled in it and he didn’t trust her to stay.

Now he knew what a breaking heart looked like; Misty’s face burned into his memory. She shouldn’t have found out that way. _Why_ hadn’t he told her. Back at his own cabin Ash headed straight for the kitchen.

“Pass me that bottle?” he gestured towards a wine bottle standing invitingly next to the window

“Hmm?” Faith pouted at him.

“ _Please?”_

He opened it and scowled at the back of Faith’s head. She began opening and shutting the cupboard doors pointedly.

“Don’t you have _any_ food?” she turned to face him, hands on her hips, “What happened to all the supplies Brock gave you?”

“I got hungry.” He said simply. Faith threw her hands in the air in exasperation.

“You and your bloody appetite! You never change!” she turned away from him. and continued muttering..

“At least _she’s_ not as bloody bad-tempered as she used to be!” Faith continued to rummage in the cupboards and Ash grimaced at her back, “Remember the way she scowled through your eighteenth birthday party.”

Ash was suddenly assaulted by the memory; he and Faith surrounded by singing partiers. Misty had stood awkwardly, close to the gym’s back entrance, her hands braced at her sides, clutching at her skirt. When the party goers had finished singing ‘Happy Birthday’ he’d turned to kiss Faith and blow out the candles, catching a glimpse of Misty fleeing back inside, before the breeze extinguished the flames for him. At the time it hadn’t even seemed important that he kept her underwear in his pocket. _Stupid boy…_

“That Derek guy must be good for her,” Faith continued.

 _Shut up,_ Ash felt tears welling up and wiped his eyes with the back of his hand, _Just please shut up._

“They do make a cute couple though, don’t you think? At least she’s not moping around after _you_ anymore.” She turned to him, “Don’t you think they’re cu-“

Before she could finish he kissed her hard, anything to make her stop.

 _Please, I love_ her, _don’t make me think about_ them.

But _they_ possessed his thoughts and he pulled Faith into the bedroom, the familiar lump in his throat growing, choking him. She wasn’t Misty, but Misty was out of reach. Faith was here, and he needed her now, if only to forget himself for a little while. He pulled her top over her head and tugged at her shorts as she fumbled with the buttons on his jeans. On the bed she responded willingly, arching her back and kissing his neck.

“I’ve missed you,” she purred, but he pretended not to hear

 _Misty, I love you._ He couldn’t get her out of his mind, _I’m sorry I never told you._

Faith gripped his hair and pulled him down to kiss her. Ash groaned her name, but instead of responding she went still, eyes blazing up at him. What had he said?

_Misty…_

“You bastard!” she screamed, pushing him away. He didn’t have the energy anymore to deny it and stayed silent. She slapped him across the face.

“You won’t even look at me!”

“You absolute bastard! You’d throw away what we have! And for what? That scrawny little cow?”

“I bet that poor Derek doesn’t even know what a _whore_ his girlfriend is!”

Hearing the commotion Pikachu bounded in, cheeks sparking. Ash gave him a warning look and he backed away slightly, looking from Faith to his master.

“I’ll leave in the morning. You can sleep on the couch; I can’t even look at you,” she glared down at Pikachu, “And keep that stupid little thing away from me.”

“Faith… Please,” Ash reached for her arm.

“Don’t touch me!” she pulled away, “You’re dead to me now, Ketchum. I’ve spent three years trying to make you get over her! I’m not waiting around anymore! You’re welcome to each other.”

Ash stormed past her with Pikachu at his heels. On his way through the kitchen he grabbed the wine bottle from earlier and threw himself down on the sofa, raising it to his lips.

**

The lights in the other cabin were still off when Faith went to her car the next morning, but as she slammed the door Derek’s head appeared round the side. Faith waved him over and took a deep breath.

“Faith! What’s up?” Derek kissed her cordially on the cheek and leant against her car bonnet. Faith sighed and he frowned, raising an eyebrow.

“I’m sorry to have to tell you this…” she trailed off, but Derek leant forward, brows furrowed.

“Go on?”

“I think Ash and Misty have been sleeping together!”

Derek’s eyes blazed, “You what?” he gripped her shoulders, “How do you know?”

“I confronted him and he didn’t deny it.”

“Bastard!” he spat, slamming his fist against her car. Faith jumped slightly but carried on.

“They’re just as bad as each other!” she pointed between the two cabins, “If she’s capable of that then she obviously doesn’t deserve you!” Derek put his hand up to silence her.

“Thanks for telling me,” he put his hand on her shoulder and smiled grimly, “You go, I have to take care of this.”

Through her tears she failed to notice Derek’s knuckles whiten as he gripped his gun.


	11. Chapter Ten

When Ash woke up the cabin was empty. He hadn’t expected Faith to say goodbye but the silence was mocking.

_What kind of trouble have you caused now?_

She must have left through the back door- crept out so she wouldn’t even have to look at him. The kitchen door was now open and he could see the ring he had once given her sparkling on top of the table. He sat up on the sofa and put his head in his hands.

_Stupid boy._

In the distance Ash heard a bang, then the crack of a gunshot. He wondered if Derek was hunting in the woods by their cabin today. Maybe that was a good thing, having to keep his distance from Misty for the moment might do them both some good. But he couldn’t help but imagine taking that ring from his kitchen counter and slipping it on her finger… if Faith hadn’t come by the day before… What if?

_“No! Stop please!”_

Misty’s frantic voice pierced his thoughts and he dashed to the door, opening it in time to see Derek dragging Misty towards his truck.

“Derek! Misty!” Ash looked at each of them in turn. Misty’s eyes widened and he saw the familiar twinkle of fear.

“You bastard!” Derek lunged forward and threw his fist into Ash’s cheek, knocking him to the ground. Ash reached instinctively to his nose and found blood on his finger tips.

“What?” he looked up groggily, straight into the barrel of Derek’s gun. Misty was clinging to Derek’s arm, screaming.

_“No! He didn’t do it, stop!”_

Ash stood up slowly, Derek’s gun following a trail between his eyes. For a brief moment that seemed to Ash to last an eternity they stood like that; Ash unable to take his eyes off the gun Derek pointed at his face, Misty poised between them. Ash opened his mouth to speak but Derek flinched forward and he held up his hand.

“Did you sleep with her? Did you! Faith told me everything you bastard!”

“I broke up with her and she’s just trying to cause trouble!” Ash tried to keep his voice steady, but the barrel of the gun was staring him in the face. _Is Misty worth this?_

The hard line of Derek’s mouth faltered slightly but he didn’t lower his gun. Ash heard the familiar sizzle of Pikachu behind him; he couldn’t have his friend making this worse. Right then he was sure Derek wouldn’t hesitate to shoot them both.

“Pikachu. Stop.” Ash didn’t take his eyes off Derek but the mouse caught the tone in his voice and backed away slightly.

“She’s been paranoid since I became Pokemon Master!” he pleaded, “This isn’t the first time she’s done this, Derek, _please.”_ Derek lowered his gun slightly, but didn’t take his finger off of the trigger.

“ _Why_ would _you_ break up with her?”

“I don’t love her! All that stuff you said last night, made me realise how unhappy I was with her.” _Please buy it…_ “I want something more than just settling. I’m sorry you both got dragged into it. I really am.”

Ash’s breath escaped him as Derek lowered his shotgun and slapped him on the shoulder.

“Mate, I’m sorry.” He murmured, his grip tightening, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have listened to her.”

“It’s ok,” Ash pulled away from his hand, “I have to go… pack. I have to- just, yeah.”

He turned to Misty and saw genuine regret in her eyes. But he suddenly found he didn’t care. He had to get away from her.

“I’m sorry, I have to go.”

And he walked away from her. Part of him knew it would be for good this time.

* * *

Ash returned, shaken, to his cabin. He’d pack his things and leave this afternoon.

_So stupid…_

The futility of what he’d done hit him hard. Faith had loved him, been there for him. And yet he’d been stupid enough to let himself fall back in love with Misty. He’d been chasing a memory that everyone had been begging him to forget. But he _did_ love her, and he couldn’t pretend to love Faith anymore, but he could get space from both of them. Maybe this could be the ending to their friendship that he and Misty so desperately needed to sever their ties permanently.

Pikachu watched him sadly from the window ledge, frantically throwing clothes into his suitcase. Ash patted him fondly on the head and sat down on the bed listlessly, lying back and covering his face with his hands. He lay there until his back began to ache and threw himself forward to fake a smile for Pikachu.

“I’m sorry, buddy, I know you wanted it to work out too. But she’s just not worth –“

He stopped abruptly, his gaze wandering to the window and the cabin across the clearing, Pikachu turned to follow his gaze; Misty and Derek’s bedroom curtains were open still and once again he saw them together in their room. A familiar sinking feeling laid itself in his stomach, growing tenfold as his eyes began to water.

He realised then why Misty would never leave Derek.

And he knew he had to get away.

* * *

Derek dragged Misty back into their cabin without saying another word. She closed the door quietly behind her, not wanting to break him out of whatever daydream he’d passed into.

“Derek… I-”she inhaled sharply and painfully as drove the butt of his gun into her stomach, forcing her on to the floor.

“You stupid little whore!”

“No! I didn’t-“

“But you wanted to didn’t you,” a kick to the stomach, “You wouldn’t have said no, would you? You never do!”

“No, please stop!”

“Stop?” he hissed, dragging her to her feet, “Why? Cause I _love_ you?” His voice was demeaning, teasing. His hand moved from her collar to her throat, squeezing.

“Why would anyone love _you_?”

She opened her mouth to scream but he squeezed harder, forcing her voice back and as he let her go she fell panting to the floor, clutching her throat. When she looked up he’d gone; she could hear him in the kitchen, muttering to himself. He came back in, grinning to himself, in one hand he held his gun, in the other, a knife.

_Run. Just run._ But her legs wouldn’t work. _No one could love me._

“I _do_ love you, Misty. But I can’t trust you,” he came closer, “How can I do my job knowing you could be out there shagging the first man you find?”

In a flurry of movement he grabbed her hair and Misty found herself being dragged away from the door, away from escape, towards the bedroom. A final flash of wanting to stop ran through her and she flailed wildly, trying to grasp something, anything to stop herself being dragged back in there. But Derek twisted his fist in her hair and the pain silenced her, blinded her.

Slamming the door behind them, Derek threw her into the corner. She tried to focus on anything else in the room other than the knife in his hand but she couldn’t. She could only follow its movement as Derek turned to open the wardrobe, raised the knife and began to slash wildly at her clothes.

_‘Made a fool of me. Make you stay’._

She couldn’t see his face but the anger of his movements, the brutal slash of the knife, chilled her. Could she run while his back was turned? No. He’d come after her. After Ash. The memory of Derek’s gun to his face, the look of fear, the look of _doubt_. No. Ash wouldn’t help her now. Derek would have his way.

When her clothes lay in tatters on the floor he turned to her.

“You won’t leave unless I say so. Do you understand?” she nodded, he knelt down before her, driving his fist into her stomach. She gagged; the threat of throwing up gaining presence. Derek pulled her hair back so that she looked up at him and his face seemed to soften. A cup of water from the night before was still on the bedside cabinet and he reached for it, pulling her up to stand with him, and let her gulp and drink like a child.

Its bitterness immediately stung her throat and made her head swim.

_Did he…? What did I drink?_

The thought was fleeting and confused before she saw the flash of the knife once more, moving threateningly close to her throat before slicing through the buttons of her dress, the clasp of her bra. He moved it back up to her throat and smiled.

_Monster… I tried to love you._

With his free hand he tugged at her clothes, growling, ‘ _Take them off’._ As she pulled the dress off of her shoulders he grabbed it from her, dragging his knife through the fabric. Then she was stood naked before him. As vulnerable as she had ever been as he pushed her calmly but forcefully onto the bed.

“No one wants damaged goods, Misty,” he mocked her, reaching down to undo his belt.

_Ash wanted me… until you wrecked it._

The thought was enough for her to summon her strength to fight back and for a moment she struggled, throwing her last remaining energies into resisting him. She kicked out at him as he loomed over her until his knees braced down on her thighs, trapping her under him. But his hands were occupied with unbuckling his jeans and left hers free; Misty swiped madly at him, scratching his face. He was getting angrier but she didn’t care, if he was going to take her he’d do so with a fight.

“Stupid bitch!” Pulling his belt from the last loop of his jeans he whipped it at her, the buckle tearing into her side, and she howled, pleading with him to stop. Her hands moved to protect herself and she felt the warmth of blood swathing her fingers.

“Lay back down,” he said firmly as she clutched at the bleeding welt on her side and she obeyed, sobs heaving at her chest. As he climbed on top of her she felt her senses ebb; her sight blurred from tears, her mind numbed from the pain he had inflicted and the drink laced with bitter sedatives. Then his grunts, soft at first but getting louder and louder, penetrated her thoughts and for a moment she found herself horribly aware of his touch, his hands clutching at her.

She lay there, sobbing silently, willing him to finish. As he tried to kiss her she turned her face away from him, she wouldn’t give him that last satisfaction, that last shred of dignity. She found herself staring down the barrel of the gun Derek had left on the side, trying to block out the stinging between her thighs, the heavy weight on her chest as he bore down on her.

_Is it loaded?_

Derek shifted on top of her, freeing the air trapped in her lungs and she sighed. Maybe it was over, maybe-

Her face exploded at the force of his fist and the world went black.

She came back to herself unable to figure out how long she’d been there, but the sight of Derek buckling up his jeans, she couldn’t keep her eyes of his belt buckle, told her it hadn’t been long. She lay there sprawled on the bed, her insides on fire, her body aching.

_Is he going to kill me?_ She thought once more of the gun, still lying inches away from her head. There was no panic in her mind, not even a thought that she should be panicked, just a sense of hopelessness. Of relief.

Derek was saying something, but his words passed through her without even registering. _Get up._ She found herself dragged to her feet before him. _Slap._ She couldn’t understand, the world was hazy. Maybe she was still asleep. She felt his hands on her arms, fingers digging in, and he half dragged, half coaxed her like an animal into the bathroom. She sank to the floor, barely noticing her skin fusing to the cold tiles. Stared at the tap. The _drip, drip, drip_ of water where she hadn’t shut it off properly. _A bath would be nice_. She felt sticky and dirty. Wondered whether he’d let her run one. Would she shut it off when the bath was full? Or let it flow and flow until she was swept away.

Derek was saying something again. Something about her being _stupid_. Maybe she was. Maybe that’s why she was here. The door slammed, she heard him draw the bolt. Why was there a bolt outside?

_‘If you’re going to act like a stupid-fucking animal then you can stay in here like one.’_

The front door slammed. She heard voices murmuring. What were they saying? _See ya?_ Was Ash leaving? Of course Ash was leaving. She could run, but Derek would find her clutching the door handle, she couldn’t get out.

A car door slammed. The rolling crunch of car tires on gravel and then silence. Ash was gone.

Moments of silenced passed before the door opened again. Quieter this time. The threat was gone. Derek was calm again. Maybe he’d be nice to her now. Maybe this _was_ her fault. She’d act like his lapdog if it meant he was nice to her.

Feet padding around outside. Maybe he’d forgotten about her. Maybe he’d leave her here forever. Maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing.

But the footsteps came closer. A metallic _shink_ as the bolt drew back.

She rested her head against the bathtub and closed her eyes.

_I’m going to die here._


	12. Chapter Eleven

Ash threw the last of his luggage into the truck. There had been no movement in Misty’s cabin for some time now and he was glad. After this day he never wanted to look back. The events of the day made him tremble and he was still slightly shaky as he reached out for the passenger side door to let Pikachu in. His friend bounded back to the back seat and perched next to the pile of clothes Ash had hastily thrown in.

“So, you’re actually going then?”

Ash turned round to see Derek leaning against a nearby tree, shotgun hung lazily over his shoulder, and gulped slightly. There was no anger in Derek’s eyes anymore, but Ash hadn’t really wanted to see him before he left.

“Yeah, I got a call from the League this morning,” he lied, “Got to get up to the Indigo Plateau by the end of the week. Thought I’d get ahead of schedule and get out of your hair.”

Derek came towards him and hung his head, running a hand through his hair. Ash watched him carefully; he seemed so relaxed, like the morning had never happened. Pikachu sprung back from the back seat, his tail raised high.

“Look, mate, I’m really sorry about that. It’s just, I love her so much that I get a little bit funny sometimes.” Ash winced and shrugged, holding out his hand for Derek to shake. “Didn’t mean to give you a shock though, mate, no hard feelings?”

Ash shook his head and smiled weakly, “Take care of her ok?”

Derek nodded and, throwing a quick ‘see ya’ and a wave over his shoulder, went back to his truck. Ash now noticed that it was tucked round the side of the cabins; there must be a way out of the clearing through the trees. He said nothing else, there was no need for proper goodbyes or promises to keep in touch. Once he left he never wanted to look back. He simply ushered Pikachu back into his own truck slammed the door behind him. His friend bounded over the pile of clothes in the back seat to perch happily on Ash’s holdall. Ash offered Derek a stiff wave and got into the driver’s seat, taking one last look at the two cabins before taking off down the dirt track.

In the mirror Ash saw Derek go back into his cabin and he thought of Misty. Derek had seemed calm as he said goodbye, but how quickly would he turn? They’d be better off getting away. Ash looked at Pikachu in the mirror and smiled slightly.

The track was bumpier than he remembered and with every pothole Pikachu bounced jerkily. Ash felt a sudden pang of guilt; the back seat couldn’t be comfortable. But there was no time to stop and check on his friend. They needed to make good time and get to Pewter City before nightfall. He hadn’t warned Brock of their arrival, there hadn’t been time and he wanted to get to the gym before Brock locked up for the night.

Ash’s thoughts turned to Misty and again that familiar pang of guilt. But he couldn’t look back, couldn’t waste time in getting away. He put his foot down, and decided to take a different route. The journey to the cabin had been leisurely, he’d enjoyed seeing parts of Kanto he hadn’t been to in years, but now he was in a hurry. He ignored logic and took a turn to follow the track past the outskirts of Cerulean; staying there definitely wasn’t an option. Pikachu chirped happily away in the backseat and Ash smiled slightly, he was glad Pikachu had enjoyed himself. He’d found an empty ketchup bottle in the boot and was cheerfully regaling the pile of clothes next to him with mimes of Brock’s cooking. Anything to make the journey go quicker.

Three hours until sunset, they could still make it. Ash sighed with relief at the signpost for Route 4 ahead of them and decided they had time for a quick break. He stopped the truck but left the engine running and turned round to face the back.

“How’re you doing back there?”

“Pika!”

Ash laughed, in spite of the circumstances, “Ok buddy, and how’s our stowaway doing?”

“She’s fine,” came a muffled reply. Ash pulled away a blanket and offered his hand to help Misty sit, “A little uncomfortable though.”

“I know,” Ash brushed the hair out of her face, “But we won’t be too long now if we do this road in one long stretch.”

She nodded and then giggled as Pikachu fluffed a pillow behind her back. When he saw she was being taken good care of Ash turned back round in his seat and continued forward.

“Ash?”

“Yeah, Myst?”

“Thank you…”

Ash said nothing, just let the tears fall silently down his face as he thought how close he’d been to leaving her behind. If he hadn’t looked out of the window in time to see Derek’s fist hurtle into her face, in time to realise how wrong he had been, how naïve, he might have left her there.

* * *

_Ash threw another bag into the back of his truck. All that was left now was his remaining holdall by the door; they could make a quick getaway. There was no movement from Misty’s cabin. Derek had disappeared into the distance, pausing only to greet Ash stiffly before slamming the door and driving away. He’d taken his shotgun but Ash couldn’t be sure how long he would be gone. He’d have to act quickly._

_The front door to the cabin was unlocked; Derek had either forgotten to lock it or had felt no need. Ash opened it slowly, a sudden feeling of dread lodging in the pit of his stomach. He padded through the cabin but with each empty room the feeling grew stronger, until he found his hand on the bathroom door. A bolt, inexpertly nailed to the outside, was closed and he drew it back slowly, pushing at the door._

_There he found her, naked and shivering on the floor. In the light of day he could see every bruise on her, stretching over her thighs to her ribcage, made worse by the glaring red welt on her side. Ash’s hand flew to his mouth to stifle a sob as he fell to his knees beside her. For a moment she looked straight through him, eyes glassy and unfocussed, but as he reached out a trembling hand she crumpled into him and wept. He felt his own eyes brimming with tears but he knew he had to stay strong, had to get her out before Derek returned._

_“Myst, we need to get you dressed. My truck’s all packed but we have to go now, before he gets back. Come on, there’s no time to call the police. We_ have _to go.”_

_“I can’t, Ash…he…”_

_“I’m not taking no for an answer Misty. I’m not leaving you here.”_

_“No, Ash, he cut up all my clothes. Can you get me something to wear?”_

_“Oh, sorry. Sure, take my jacket. We’ll find something for you in the car.”_

_Ash helped her to put it on, being careful to avoid the cut on her side. She winced when he lifted up her arm and cradled her waist._

_“Misty…”_

_“It’s…ah…my ribs. I think they’re broken.”_

_“It’ll take us too long to get to Viridian Hospital. We’ll have to stop at the Pokemon centre in Pewter City, see what they can do.”_

_Misty’s eyes went wide, “Pewter? Why are we going…?”_

_“Brock’ll give us a place to stay. You’ll be safe there.”_

_“You’re going to tell- ah!” Ash helped her to stand, supporting her weight, and turned her cheek to face him._

_“Misty… you have to tell someone. The police. They’ll arrest him, he won’t be able to hurt you anymore…”_

_She began to cry again, but this time a smile shone through. It struck Ash that, up until that point she probably hadn’t realised that this was real. That she was safe again. He kissed her hair and led her to the door._


	13. Chapter Twelve

Within a few hours they’d reached the outskirts of Pewter city. The roads had been far smoother since Cerulean and Misty had fallen asleep some time ago, resting her head on the pillow Pikachu had given her. Ash stopped the car briefly to stretch his legs and stared back at her; the sunset reflecting in her hair and on her face made her look misleadingly peaceful. He still wanted to get her to Brock’s before his old friend locked up for the night and felt sure they would be able to make it. Yet despite Ash’s best efforts it was dark by the time they arrived at the Pewter gym. 

“Myst,” he whispered into her ear, touching her shoulder to wake her.

“Hmm?” she looked up at him sleepily and smiled.

“We’re here.” He gestured out into the night to the Pewter Gym, “I’m going to see if Brock’s still awake.” He said hurriedly.

He left Misty in the car and ran to the gym entrance, banging his fist on the solid door.

“Brock! Anyone there?”

The lights were off in the front of the building. Brock and his family lived in a small annex sealed off from the gym’s grounds and Ash knew there’d be no way they would hear him banging now that they had locked up. He and Pikachu would have to head for the Pokemon Centre with Misty; they couldn’t stay outside all night and she needed medical attention. Ash hurried back to the truck, leant over to the back seat to wrap the blankets tighter around Misty and eased the car back down the road.

Nurse Joy was still awake when they arrived; Ash half-supporting Misty with an arm around her waist. The Nurse jumped up from her station and ran round to the door, confronted by the sight of Misty wearing nothing but one of Ash’s shirts and a pair of shorts; with bruises snaking from her thighs to her throat.

“Chansey!” the Pokemon appeared round the corner behind her, “What happened here?”

Ash opened his mouth to speak but Misty interrupted him, grasping his hand tightly.

“A man…. My boyfriend attacked me,” her voice was firm but tears streamed down her face. Nurse Joy looked at her with pity and gestured towards the bed Chansey had rolled towards them.

“We didn’t know where else to go, the hospital is too far away,” Ash continued, his arm wrapped around Misty’s waist to support her as she lifted herself onto the bed. 

“Lay down,” Nurse Joy leant forward and lowered her voice, “Is this the man who-”

“No!” Misty stretched out her hand towards Ash, “No, please, don’t make him go away.” The firm tone in her voice had melted away to be replaced with panic.

“I’ll be here Misty,” Ash whispered, kissing her palm, “Just let Nurse Joy take care of you.”

She nodded and squeezed his hand before being rolled away. 

Ash sat down heavily on a nearby chair, Pikachu next to him. He realised it had been little more than a week since he had last been here, accompanying Brock to heal Onyx before he set off to the cabin. A week and life had changed so much. 

“Pika?” Ash turned to his friend.

“Get some rest, Pikachu. I’ll wait for Misty.”

**

Ash must have dozed off himself, because the next thing he knew Nurse Joy was shaking him awake. 

“What? How is she?” he shot up and steadied himself on Joy’s shoulder. 

“She’s not good, but the wounds will heal.” She placed a hand on his shoulder and eased him back down into his seat, taking the one next to him. “She has a couple of cracked ribs, but there’s not much we can do about that. They’ll heal in time. The rest of her injuries are superficial.”

Ash nodded quietly and wrung his hands together.

“Mr Ketchum… Ash,” Nurse Joy took his arm, “I don’t know if it was the right thing to do, she didn’t seem to be in a good state of mind, but I took some samples. For Officer Jenny.”

“Samples?” It was late and his mind was foggy.

“Ash,” she said softly and placed a hand on his shoulder, “It’s obvious she was raped.”

Ash stared at her, unseeing, for a moment. Her words rang loudly in his head. _Misty… raped._ Deep down he must have realised, but hearing Joy say the word… it was too much. 

“Where is she?” he said softly.

“Ash…” Nurse Joy begun, “I know this is hard to hear-“

“Where is she?!” he knew he should lower his voice, but he wanted to see Misty, to hold her hand.

“She’s still in the treatment room. She-” Ash leaned forward and ran his fingers through his hair. Nurse Joy rested a hand on his back. After a few moments he glanced up at her, she was struck by how tired he looked, and clasped his hands in front of him.

“What do I _do_?” he asked sincerely, staring right into her eyes.

“I’m sorry?” 

“How can I fix this?”

Joy’s mouth formed an ‘o’ and she looked at him understandingly. 

“You can’t, you just have to be her friend.” Nurse Joy took his hand and squeezed gently, “She’ll need you in her own way.”

“I’m not sure I can do this…”

“Ash?” he looked up again, “Do you love her?”

He paused in shock, but nodded slowly.

“Then you’ll get her through this. No matter how hard it’ll be.”

“Can I get her to bed?”

“Of course,” Nurse Joy stood up, “I’ll help you. But first, here’s the key to the Centre garage. Put your truck there. It’ll stand out in the road.”

Ash looked back at her, shocked, but took the keys she offered. He’d forgotten how astute she could be.

“Thank you.” 

“It’s alright,” she squeezed his arm, “I’ll go tell Misty I have a room for you both.”

**

Nurse Joy helped Ash to half-support, half-carry Misty up to the stairs, Chansey carrying the few supplies he had grabbed from the boot of his truck. At the door he took more of Misty’s weight and let Nurse Joy head back down to the lobby. Ash laid her down on the bed, Misty’s fingertips brushed his palm gently and he smiled slightly. 

For a moment they stayed there, fingers twisted together and eyes locked. _You are so beautiful. I love you so much._ His lips parted but she drew her fingers away and shifted.

“Ash?” she sat up and wiped her face, “Can you help me have a bath?”

“Sure, Myst, anything you want.” He took her arm and helped her into the bathroom. Nurse Joy had provided them a room with an en suite and had hurriedly handed him a bag of toiletries on her way out, which Ash now placed in the sink. Misty perched on the toilet lid awkwardly; her ribs were obviously giving her trouble. He ran the bath hot, hoping that would ease some of her pain.

“Myst, here,” he stepped forwarded, “Let me help.” She nodded and let him help her up.

“Do you want me to go?” in the silence he spoke softly, afraid of her answer. But she stepped forward and cocooned herself in his arms.

“Stay,” she whispered, “I need you.”

He nodded and kissed the top of her head. Moving back slightly he lifted the shirt he had given her over her head and helped her step out of his shorts. He tried to avert his eyes as he helped her into the bath but the pull was too much and he was reminded again of the bruises and wounds covering her. He felt sure that image would stay with him forever. 

Ash leant his head on his elbow, draped over the edge of the bath, and gently stroked her arm. As she lifted the sponge to her chest she winced and he took it from her without a word. He leant forward slightly, secured his arm around her shoulders and helped her to wash. She didn’t take her eyes off of his but smiled sorrowfully. The water turned pink as he ran first the sponge over her chest, and then gently eased her legs apart. He rested his hand on her knee.

“Why did you stop?” tears had filled her eyes and he kissed her temple.

“Because I don’t want to hurt you.” He said simply. 

“Please, Ash.” She gripped his hand under the water, “Wash him away, please… I don’t feel clean…” 

Ash nodded and, as gently as he could, bathed her between her thighs. She bit her lip and he wished this was any other time; a time when they could wash and bathe together in a lake and make love on the banks. But the harsh white walls, and the slowly darkening water, anchored him in reality. A reality where he was helping his oldest friend, his lover, cleanse herself of the memory of another man. A man who pretended to love her, yet nearly robbed her of everything; love, respect and dignity.

Back in the main room he helped her onto the bed, wrapped her in his robe and a blanket, and let her rest her head on his chest. After a while she looked up at him. 

“Ash?” Misty gripped his hand, “When did you start drinking?” 

Ash sat, shocked and silent. He hadn’t expected Misty to question him about that, he didn’t even think she would have noticed. But in the look she was now giving him he saw fear, and he realised it was fear for the both of them. He hung his head. 

“After… after I became Pokemon Master it was too much for me to handle, I guess. There were people everywhere, all the time. And it was hard, Myst, suddenly it felt like Brock was my only friend in the world, everyone else just wanted to be close to the Master. Not _me_. Faith just lapped up the attention; she liked playing the dutiful girlfriend. I started drinking to try and block out everything that was wrong.” 

Misty nodded gently and squeezed his hand. “I saw you on the TV about two months after you became Master. You were slurring your words, I thought you were ill…” 

“No, just stupid. The week before I came to the cabin I ended up at Viridian hospital drunk out of my mind. I don’t remember, but the doctor told me afterwards that someone had found me slumped in the forest, Pikachu had released Bayleef to carry me through but I’d fought them off and tried to walk myself. I ended up having my stomach pumped. That’s when Brock convinced me to take a break, on my own. Not that Faith would have wanted to come… she was so mad I’d embarrassed her…” 

She lay in silence for a moment with Ash running the back of his hand up and down her arm until she looked up at him thoughtfully. 

“You said you didn’t love her…” 

“I meant it, Myst.” 

“Then why…” 

“Did I ask her to marry me?” she nodded and he drew his hand back to rub his face, “I don’t know. I guess I panicked. I was going to break it off, I swear, even before I arrived at the cabin and saw you, it wasn’t fair on either of us for me to go on pretending.” 

Misty lowered her eyes, “Why didn’t you tell me?” 

“I didn’t think she’d turn up. It just didn’t seem important if I was going to break it off anyways. I’m sorry you had to find out that way, Myst. I really am.”

They sat in silence once more. 

“Myst?” he whispered, “Look at me, please.” 

“I love you.” 

And he kissed her. 

At first their lips touched softly, he was still so afraid of hurting her, of reminding her of anything Derek had done to her. But when she parted her lips to welcome him he moved closer, one hand placed on her hip, the other cupping her face. This was like a first kiss again, seemingly both hesitant and passionate at once, and he lost himself briefly. If only he could prove to her, make her see that it was she he loved all along, maybe then he could help her get through this.. 

He wasn’t sure who broke away first, but he found himself looking into her eyes again; only this time he saw happiness there once more, overshadowing the sadness that had taken over. 

“I do love you, Myst. And no matter what happens I will continue to love you.”

He held her in his arms as she began to cry; heaving sobs that subsided into quiet tears. She said nothing for some time but he hadn’t expected her to. He’d wait for her to be ready.


	14. Chapter Thirteen

“I don’t know why it happened, Ash, how I got myself into this mess… I really don’t. When I first met Derek he was so sweet, so caring. I thought he was what I needed. Not to get over you, please, don’t think this is in any way your fault; I just wanted to make myself happy for once. After the problems we’d been having with the Gym, our bills and the fine, I was so used to being stressed all of the time. I wanted to let go and relax, just for a moment.

“I _so_ wanted to be happy. Derek… well… I guess he knew that. I don’t think the gym was his goal at all; he wanted control over me, not a business. That’s what he always wants; control.

“Can you get me some water please? Thank you. What? No, I’m not tired just yet.

“Ash, please, I need to tell you. I can trust you. If I can’t tell the police tomorrow I need you to do it for me. _Please_. You don’t know how hard it’ll be… knowing my sisters will find out what I’ve done… what _he’s_ done. Daisy… oh Daisy, she’ll hate herself!

“Thank you… I’m okay.

“I’d had doubts… before he bought the gym. I wanted to end things. I wasn’t sure I was even ready for a relationship, even though he seemed to care so much… but then we sunk deeper into debt and I got scared. I was so terrified my sisters would find out, that they’d hate me again. It’s taken years for them to finally respect me… I’m not a runt to them anymore, Ash! But if they knew I’d screwed up our gym, our parents’ gym, I didn’t think they’d be able to forgive me. I thought… I thought they’d think that I’d proven all the stuff they thought about me was right and they’d be embarrassed to call me their sister again.

“I know what you’ll say ‘they care more about me than the gym’. Right? But don’t you see how desperate I was to prove myself. I just couldn’t admit to them I’d let them down.

“I forgot all my doubts about Derek for just a second… and he took advantage of that. He must have known… must have realised that I didn’t really want to be with him… maybe that’s why he jumped at the chance to buy the gym. To make me owe him something. I wasn’t thinking straight. I just thought ‘if this man is willing to do this for me, how could I think about ending it?’ How did I deserve such a wonderful man? So I signed over my gym, kept it secret from my sisters and thought my troubles were over. Suddenly Derek was everything I ever needed, and I _so_ wanted to please him. I think I would have done anything to please him.

“So I told myself to keep quiet the first time he hit me, a week after we drew up the contract. He seemed so sorry, so horrified at what he’d done I just put it down to stress. Until it happened again. And again. Then the first night he… he… _raped me…_ I think was the moment I knew I was trapped.

“That first time he wasn’t as violent, that’s what scared me the most, how _calm_ he was. We were at his apartment, we were always at his apartment, and he got me a drink. He’d been so sweet lately. I thought the beatings were just a phase, that it was maybe the stress and it was all over. But after I drank, I felt… groggy. He was stroking my hair, the last thing I saw was his face before everything started to go hazy and I fell asleep on the sofa. Then when I woke up he was… he’d… no, I’m ok. I have to tell you. He was raping me. He’d just pulled up my skirt and forced himself on top of me. I begged him to stop but he just ignored me, I think he liked it when I struggled and pleaded with him. It was like a game to him. It hurt so much. Then when he’d finished he dragged me to the shower, made me wash and go to bed. When I woke up the next morning he was so nice to me, and I felt so awful my head was hurting, that I thought maybe I’d imagined it. Maybe I _had_ drunk that much.

“But the next time… I didn’t have any doubts. We were driving to meet some friend or associate of his in the Celadon suburbs and we stopped to ask a man for directions outside of Celadon City. The guy was on my side so I wound down the window and Derek asked him. But, when we drove off we took the wrong turn. I thought he had just made a mistake, so I turned to ask him and he… his fist… he punched me in the face. I thought he’d broken my nose, there was so much blood. We’d stopped in the woods so there was no one around, he was shouting at me, saying I’d been flirting with that guy… I thought he was going to keep punching me. But he dragged me out of the car… made me _do_ things to him. Then he stripped off my clothes and threatened to leave me there if I didn’t do as he said.

“So I did, even though I hated myself for it. I didn’t even put up a fight. The _only_ time I put up a fight was when I thought he was going to kill me, at the cabin. Before you found me. But every other time? I just let it happen, it was so much worse if I struggled. That day in the woods, it felt like hours. He pulled my hair, made me suck him. Then shoved me on the ground in the nettles and raped me again. He was like an animal, grunting, telling me he’d make sure I knew who I belonged too. It was so cold. That time he was violent, he kept biting me, and he balled my scarf up in my mouth, to stop me screaming.

“He said no one would want me after he’d finished, but the truth is I wouldn’t have wanted anyone else ever touching me again. I wouldn’t have _wanted_ anyone to want me after that. I felt so disgusted with myself. I think that was when he got a complete hold over me, convinced me it was either stay with him or be alone.

“I… I’d never been in a proper relationship, Ash. We were just kids fooling about, and you were the only other guy I’d slept with. I thought Derek was the last chance I had of someone actually _wanting_ me. No, Ash, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. But that’s how he _made_ me feel. Like I was lucky he wanted me, even if I hated the way he showed it.

“I should have left him… but he swore he’d take everything from me; and if I didn’t have the gym, I wouldn’t have my sisters and they were all I had left in the world other than my Pokémon. Gyrados had been taken away from me already… Daisy put him away until the trouble died down. You and Brock… well, we were out of touch. I felt like I was losing everyone and I couldn’t lose my sisters too Ash, I just couldn’t!

“I’m so scared to tell them. What will they think of me when they find out what I’ve done? Will they even be able to look at me? Or worse… will they only ever see what he did to me.

“I wanted to tell _you_ Ash. I came so close, before Faith arrived. But I’d gotten so used to the idea of not telling anyone that that’s how we went on, for five months of our relationship. I never breathed a word to my sisters and swore I never would. I don’t know what would have hurt them more; the fact they hadn’t been able to protect me, or the fact I was too scared to tell them what the man they’d trusted was doing to me.

“Ash, what am I going to tell them?”


	15. Chapter Fourteen

Whilst she had been talking Misty had drawn her knees up to her chin, resting her head there and averting her eyes. She seemed so small, Ash pulled her into his arms and held her tight, screwing up his face into her hair to hold back his tears. She hadn’t spoken for some time, but Ash held her in his arms in silence, stroking her gently from her shoulder to her elbow. In the quiet of the night the images forced into his mind by Misty’s admissions grew more vivid and he wanted nothing more to erase them completely.

_It was like a game to him._

Derek… Ash’s chest swelled up in anger. Anger at himself for not realising her pain, for not being there for her,

He felt her sigh and loosened his grip.

“What if no one believes me, Ash?” she turned to look at him.

“They will.” He said firmly, but buried his face in her hair, kissing her temple. “I promise you they will. I’ll be here with you, Myst, I’ll make sure they believe you. I _saw_ him, Myst. I believe you. Nurse Joy believes you.”

“My sisters…”

“Love you. They will always love you.”

He tightened his arms around her again.

“Like you love me?” he looked down to see a sweet smile brightening her features slightly and he found himself returning it.

“Like I love you.” He kissed her very gently on the lips and felt the tension in her shoulders disappear as she went slack in his arms. Without thinking he parted her lips with his own and felt an abrupt, foolish swell of lust. As his fingertips ran from their place at her hip to the swell of her breast they brushed against a raised mark. Ash realised with horror that it was where Derek had struck her as Misty let out a guttural sob against his mouth.

“Misty, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” He wept with her, clutching at the material her had wrapped her in his attempts to draw her as close as possible.

“He’ll find me, Ash.” She howled, “I should have stayed. I shouldn’t have come with you. I’m sorry. He’ll come after the both of us.”

Ash made soft noises as he cradled her, whispering as reassuringly as he could into her hair. But her cries came undeterred and she balled his shirt in her fists, soaking it with her tears.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” Her words were punctured with sobs.

“Misty, it’s ok. It’s alright.” he murmured, and held her until her sobs subsided. When he leant down to kiss her forehead her eyes were closed and she was breathing softly.

When he was sure Misty was sleeping Ash gently pulled his arm away and padded across the room to the door. He paused with his handle on the doorknob.

“Pikachu?” he turned back to his friend, sound asleep in a draw and patted him on the head.

“Pi?” Pikachu looked up at him sleepily.

“Come here buddy,” Ash sat down with his back to the door and patted the floor beside him. Pikachu shuffled across the floor towards him, ears down, and rested himself on the floor.

“You’re worried about Misty?” Ash looked over at her sleeping form and back at Pikachu, whose brown eyes were wet.

“She’ll be ok, buddy.” Ash stroked Pikachu’s head, “We’ll be there for her.”

They sat in silence for a moment, until Pikachu shuffled under Ash’s hand and looked up.

“Pi… Pika…” he said sadly. Ash sighed ad looked down at him. He should have realised his friend would still be concerned about Derek.

“Pikachu. You know you couldn’t have shocked him,” he scratched the top of his head reassuringly. “He would have shot us both for sure.”

“Pika…”

“I know you would have done everything you could. But you can’t always protect me against people… only Pokemon, buddy. I have to stand on my own two feet sometimes.”

“Pika!” Ash laughed softly. _You’d trip over your own two feet without me._

“Very funny Pikachu. You can help me right now.”

Ash leant across to the cabinet Pikachu had been sleeping in and grabbed a notepad from the top. He scribbled quickly.

_Gone to the lobby. I’ve locked the door. Love Ash._

“Pikachu, if Misty wakes up give her this. I’ve got to call Brock.”

Pikachu clutched the note in his paws and nodded, waddling over to the bed to nestle next to Misty’s pillow. Ash paused to brush the hair back from Misty’s face before turning back to the door, grabbing the keys from the hook and locking it behind him. His hands trembled slightly as he drew away and walked hastily down the hallway. In the Centre lobby he sat heavily down in from of a Telescreen, rubbed his face with a vaguely sweaty palm and dialled.

On the tenth ring the screen burst into life. Ash glanced at the time in the corner, three in the morning, and back at Brock, whose shirt was on backwards.

“Ash?” he blinked at him sleepily from the Telescreen, “What’s wrong?”

Ash rubbed his eyes to rid them of tears but, as he opened his mouth to speak, the image of Misty crying in his arms threatened to bring them again.

“Ash?” Brock leant forward and squinted at the screen, “What’s wrong? Where are you? That’s not the cabin!”

“Pewter City,” Ash forced a smile, “I tried knocking at the gym door but no one answered. We’re at the Pokemon Centre.”

Brock’s eyebrows rose.

“We? Who’s we?”

“Misty.”

“What? You’re with Mist-”

“Please, Brock, just be quiet. I don’t need a lecture right now. We’re in trouble.”

“With Faith? Yeah, she told me all about that, she was mad, man. But I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”

“I don’t give a fuck about Faith, Brock! It’s Misty, she…. she…” a sob escaped his lips and he bit down, willing the tears not to fall.

Brock’s face darkened and he lowered his voice to speak.

“What’s wrong with Misty, Ash?” Ash’s shoulders slumped and his words came out in a rush.

“I should have seen it Brock! I thought he was just a jerk. I should have seen what he was doing to her. She was so different; I thought she’d just grown up. It’s been three years! But her boyfriend… he…” Ash paused to compose himself, “He raped her, Brock, more than once. And if he finds us he’ll kill her I’m sure.”

Brock stared back at him, the receiver slipped slightly.

“Where is she now, Ash?”

“Asleep. Nurse Joy gave her a check over when we arrived; she’s got some nasty cuts and bruises and two of her ribs are cracked but other than that she’s physically fine.”

Brock snorted angrily, “I’ll kill him Ash, I’ll actually kill him.”

“You don’t think I want too? You haven’t _seen_ her Brock. She’s asleep now but she’s terrified. She cried herself to sleep. Thinks no one will believe her.”

“Officer Jenny will. The new one I mean, she’s had experience of domestic abuse cases and doesn’t take kindly to sexism; she even tried arresting me for sexual harassment when she first arrived,”

Ash laughed quietly, “She’ll be glad you haven’t changed, Brock.”

Brock’s face darkened, “I’m serious Ash…”

“So am I, Brock…” Then his tears started to fall, silently at first, until sobs loud enough to wake his sleeping friends punctured his breaths and the pain of three years spilled over.

“Ash,” Brock lowered his voice, “Get some sleep. I’ll be there in the morning. You can stay here as long as you like.”


	16. Chapter Fifteen

Ash opened his bleary eyes reluctantly, cursing the sunlight streaming through the curtains. He turned over in the bed and draped his arm around the sleeping Misty’s waist. She was laying sprawled on her back, hair flowing over the pillows and a look of calmness overtaking her features. Ash felt an overwhelming need to kiss her but held back, satisfying himself by laying his face next to hers on the pillow. She looked so peaceful, sleep wiping all of the tension from her mouth and drying the tears in her eyes that he wanted to preserve her in the moment. He’d wake her when Brock arrived, maybe with a kiss, maybe by stroking her hair, but for now he let her sleep.

“I love you, Misty.” He whispered, revelling again in saying the words out loud. He felt the familiar lump in his throat rising once again and tried to swallow. If only he could have said it sooner.

“Pika!”

“Say what Pikachu?” he turned towards his friend, who hurried to the door. This time he heard a quiet _rat tap tap_ on the frame. He looked down. Boxers were not the way to answer a door.

“Hang on!” he grabbed a shirt and pulled it awkwardly over his head, reaching for the door when he’d managed to wriggle his arms free. Nurse Joy greeted him.

“Mr Ketchum, we got a message from the Pewter Gym, Brock will be here in an hour.”

“Ok, thanks. I’ll wake Misty up.” Nurse Joy glanced over his shoulder into the room.

“How is she doing?”

“Alright I think… well… as alright as she can be. She slept fine. I’ll see how she’s feeling when she wakes up.”

“Chansey!” The Pokemon rounded the corner with a tea tray balanced precariously in her paws.

“Ah, there you are.” Nurse Joy held the tray out for Ash to take, “We thought you might need some coffee to activate.” Ash laughed. “You’re shirt is on inside out.”

 _What is wrong with me?!_ He blushed.

“Thank you, Nurse Joy. For everything.”

“It’s no problem Ash,” she tilted her head slightly and smiled, “I’m not just here for Pokemon.” She moved to leave, pausing quickly to pat Pikachu on the head and hand him a biscuit. As he closed the door Ash looked down at his Pokemon.

“You know, buddy, I have a title to defend now. I can’t have you getting out of shape.” Pikachu poked his tongue out.

“Pi! Pika pi!” Ash gawped.

“I am _not_ greedy!”

“Yes you are.” He and Pikachu turned towards the bed.

“Misty!” he pouted, hands on his hips.

“Ash Ketchum, you may have got more thoughtful in your old age but you have _not_ lost your appetite.” She was grinning up at him, hair dishevelled and clothes askew but he didn’t care. This was his Misty finally breaking through.

“And to think, I was going to wake you with a kiss,” he teased and winked at her.

She cocked her head to one side and tried to look pensive.

“Like my own prince Charming?”

“Yeah, but I guess it doesn’t matter now that you’re awake.”

“You could pretend.”

“That seems a bit silly…” he wrinkled his nose.

“No it’s not. Here, I’ll close my eyes.” She lay back down on the pillow, arms by her side.

Ash laughed and moved round to the other side of the bed, kneeling next to her. She had indeed closed her eyes, but her efforts at hiding her smile were laughable.

“You’re a terrible actress.” She opened one eye.

“Well so far you’re not a very good Prince Charming. I’m still asleep.”

“Ok here,” he leant down so that they were forehead to forehead, touched his lips to hers and whispered, “Wake up sleeping beauty.”

When he opened his own eyes she was smiling up at him. Ash pushed her hair back with his palm and kissed her again, entwining the fingers of his free hand with hers.

“Piiii…” Pikachu rolled his eyes. Ash and Misty both turned to face him sheepishly.

“Sorry buddy,” he looked down at Misty, “Maybe we should get up before Pikachu gets _really_ jealous.”

“Oof, it could be worse.” She raised an eyebrow.

“Huh?”

“Could be Bayleef.”

“Yikes,” Ash sat back and shuddered, “You’re right. Still Brock’s on his way so we better get dressed.”

He rummaged through his bag and pulled out a button-up shirt and handed it to her.

“Here, this’ll be easier to get on and off.”

“Thanks, Ash,” she fiddled with the buttons, “And thank you. For treating me normally.” Ash cocked his head and looked at her thoughtfully.

“I hadn’t even noticed,” he admitted, putting his foot in the wrong leg of his jeans.

“Well thank you,” her eyes were slightly wet when she looked up at him, “You’re exactly what I need, Ash.”

They dressed in comfortable silence, pierced only but Misty’s giggles as Ash finally figured out his trousers.

 _“Damn it! I_ can _dress myself!”_

He took Misty’s hand, the rest had done her good and he no longer needed to support her, and led her down to the lobby. Brock held his out his arms as soon as they turned the corner and hurried forward to embrace her.

“Misty…” she felt his tears against her cheek, “Ash told me, I’m so sorry. How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine Brock,” she pulled away enough to look him in the eye, “Are you feeling ok?”

“Huh? Me?” Brock raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah, Nurse Joy is right over there and you haven’t made a pass at her once.”

Brock frowned and tightened his grip on her.

“You’re more important.” His voice was low and serious. Misty offered him a smile.

“I’m fine Brock. I just need you and Ash to treat me normally right now.” She pulled back and smiled as Brock’s eye twitched.

“She’s my favourite Joy…” he said thoughtfully. Misty pushed him gently.

“It’s ok Brock. I understand.”

She giggled and Ash shook his head as Brock tripped over in his efforts to get to Nurse Joy. Ash stepped up behind her and, still wary of her painful ribs, wrapped his arms gently around her waist.

“Treat you normally? Does this mean I should keep pulling your hair, calling you names and ruining your stuff?” Ash joked, wrapping his arms around her. He felt her tense up at his touch and realised what he had said.

“Misty… I… I’m sorry. I didn’t think!” He buried his face in her shoulder, cursing his stupidity.

“It’s ok,” she whispered, squeezing his hands, “Thank you… for trying.”

“I will try, Misty. I promise. Even though I’m not good with words, like Brock-”

“… and your eyes! They shine like… like… apples!”

“Ok… maybe not. I think he’s losing his touch.” Then tension dissipated and Misty started giggling, Ash holding her up. He felt himself snigger along with her until she spun round and planted a kiss on his lips, catching him off guard. His eyes widened momentarily before he leant forward and returned her kiss happily.

“Hey! You know what I’ve just realised?” Ash jumped back, Brock’s voice had boomed directly into his ear.

“Wah! What? Brock!”

“I’ve known about you two for…” Brock held his hand to his mouth and looked thoughtful, “Oh… about eleven years now. But I’ve never seen you kiss before. Do it again!”

Misty batted him away.

“Eleven years?” Ash grinned at Misty, “You’ve gotta be kidding me! When we first met Myst was the tomboy who used to beat me up!” he leant down and kissed her shocked face.

“Oh? And you, the kid who had to be reminded to change his underwear, were boyfriend material? What?” Ash turned to grin at her.

“You said boyfriend.”


	17. Chapter Sixteen

Ash and Misty slept right through the night, waking only to the alarm clock Brock had given them. Ash leaned over Misty as she stirred and tried to hit snooze, knocking the clock to the floor.

“Nice one Ash,” Misty smiled at him as he flopped back down on the pillow. The door creaked open and they looked up.

“Have you two gone deaf?” Brock stood in the doorway, arms folded. He was smiling at them but Ash still got up sheepishly and retrieved the screeching alarm clock from the floor.

“Sorry Brock. I guess I got used to a life of leisure,” he scratched the back of his head and flashed a grin, “I haven’t had to use an alarm clock in a while.” Brock laughed but then his face turned serious.

“Misty,” she sat up, “Officer Jenny has cleared her schedule for the morning, but she asked if we could come and see her as soon as you’re ready.” Misty nodded and hugged her knees, looking up as Ash came to sit with her on the bed.

“I’m sorry I can’t be there with you, Myst.” He tucked her hair behind her ears and she offered him a smile.

“Ash, it’s ok. I know you’d be there if you could.”

“Officer Jenny said that as Ash is a witness he’ll have to be interviewed separately,” Brock said gently, “But I’ll be there for you, Misty.”

He watched them both with soft eyes; Ash reaching out to cup Misty’s cheek, the way they looked at one another. He let them have their moment and then cleared his throat.

“Breakfast is ready whenever you are.” He murmured and shut the door quietly behind him.

**

Officer Jenny jumped up from her desk as soon as Brock and Misty entered the station.

“Paul! Put my calls on hold.” An officer at the next desk waved his hand vaguely and went back to his paperwork. Jenny ushered through a side door and directed them to a table and chairs.

“Misty, Brock,” she sat down opposite them, “Thank you for coming.” She leant her elbows on the table and gave Misty a sympathetic look. “Please, I want you to feel comfortable. I’ll record what you have to say, using this, “she gestured to a box on the table. Misty nodded.

“Take a moment,” Jenny said gently, “We’ll begin when you’re ready.” She paused and leant forward to take Misty’s hand.

“I want you to know that we believe you, Misty. And we’re taking this seriously. He won’t get away with it.” Misty looked wide-eyed at her.

“Thank you,” she breathed. Jenny nodded and withdrew her hand.

Brock sat back in his chair to give Misty space as she began to talk, her hands twisted in her lap. For the next half hour she retold as best she could manage the events she had told Ash days before. Every so often Brock reached forward to squeeze her hand encouragingly until she fell silent.

“Misty,” Officer Jenny looked up from her notepad, where she had been annotating the conversation, “Can you continue? What happened before you left the cabin?”

“He pulled his gun on Ash…” she whispered, acutely aware that Brock was hearing this for the first time. He stiffened next to her

“He pulled a gun! Did you know he owned one?” Officer Jenny’s eyes widened. Misty gulped.

“Yes… I did.” She said softly, Brock squeezed her hand gently. Jenny leant forward and paused the tape, placing a hand on Misty’s shoulder.

“Misty, you only have to talk about thing’s you’re comfortable about.” She pulled her hand back and smiled gently, “We’re here _for_ you, not to interrogate you. This will take time. We understand.” She let Misty compose herself and hit record again.

**

“Thank you, Brock.” Misty leant into him when they got out of the station. “I couldn’t have done that without you.”

Brock put his arm around her shoulder and they walked towards the Gym in comfortable silence. At the Pokemon Centre Brock paused, bending down to tie his shoelace.

“Hey you!”

“I know that voice…” Brock murmured, turning round.

“Faith…” Misty’s heart sank, she felt as much as heard the girl walk up behind her and took a deep breath before turning round to face her.

“You think it’s fun? Stealing people’s boyfriends?” Faith rounded on her, eyes blazing.

“Faith! Leave her alone!” Brock tried to pull Faith away but she shrugged his hand off.

“She should leave _Ash_ alone! Stay away from him! He chose me once; don’t think he won’t do it again when he gets bored of you!” Faith poked the air in front of Misty’s face.

“Faith! I mean it!” Brock hissed, but Faith ignored him.

“What’s the matter Misty? You don’t have anything to say for yourself? Or do you just know I’m right?”

Misty lowered her eyes and wrapped her arms around herself. Faith stepped closer and lowered her voice.

“Don’t forget, he was going to marry _me_ ,” she hissed, “You’re just _cold feet._ ” She turned to Brock, who pulled her roughly away.

“Tell Ash I’ll meet him in _that_ coffee shop,” she gestured with a flick of her hair, “This afternoon at three. I just want to talk.”

Brock watched her walk away and pulled Misty into his embrace.

“Misty I’m sorry. I didn’t know she was in the city,” he looked to where Faith had stood, “Ash’ll be so mad-“

“Let him go.”

“Huh?” he looked down at her

“Brock, please,” he looked up at him, a mixture of resolve and sadness in her eyes, “Don’t tell Ash what she said. He needs to make this decision himself, not have it made for him.”

“Misty…” Brock touched her shoulder. “Ok… But please, don’t worry. You know he’ll choose you.”

Misty wrinkled her nose, “I know,” she whispered, “Things are different to before. But… I just need to know that Ash isn’t with me because he _feels_ like he has to be.”

“Ok I won’t tell him,” Brock put his arm around her shoulders, “But Misty? I never did see him look at her the way he looked at you.”

**

Ash wandered through Pewter gloomily after his talk with Officer Jenny. He took the long way back to the Gym with Pikachu riding along on his shoulder and kicked the ground as he walked.

_“When I found her… she… he’d locked her up in the bathroom. She didn’t seem to know me at first…”_

_“Do you think she could have been drugged?”_

_“I don’t know.”_

There had been a lot he didn’t know, a lot of questions he just couldn’t answer. Officer Jenny had been methodical but understanding and he hoped Misty had been as comforted by how seriously she was handling everything as he was. Though he was still glad she had Brock with her.

Jenny’s partner had joined them for part of Ash’s interview, introducing himself as Officer Paul, and he had nodded along sagely and made notes of Ash’s answers.

_“The gun he pulled on you, had you seen it before?”_

_“Yeah, he took it out with him every day. I think he was hunting Spearow in the woods. Although he tended to bring them back in cloth sacks…”_

That had seemed to worry them and they exchanged glances before the Paul had hurried out of the room.

 _“He needs to make an urgent phone call.”_ Officer Jenny had offered by way of explanation. _“Mr Ketchum, I think we have information to begin an investigation. Please, excuse me.”_

A receptionist had ushered him out of the station, through a central office which seemed far more agitated than when he had arrived. A phone screeched loudly and Officer Jenny hurried over to answer it in hushed tones. “ _We have a name.”_

Ash pushed it to the back of his mind and hurried forward. When the Gym was in view Brock came within earshot.

“Hey Ash!” Brock waved him over.

“Brock! Where’s Misty?” he looked over his shoulder to the Gym doors.

“She’s sleeping,” Brock rested a hand on his shoulder, “Ash… we… I saw Faith.”

“Faith? She’s here?” Ash raised his eyebrows.

“She wants to talk to you, Ash.”

“There’s nothing more to say!”

“Ash, I think you should go.”

“Why?” Ash cried, reminding Brock of the slightly whiney boy he once was.

“Closure… Ash. Do you want to wake up one day and wonder? And even you are sure you owe her a conversation.”

“I guess you’re right…” he lowered his eyes, “D’you think Misty will be upset?”

“She’ll be fine, Ash. She trusts you. Go now, Faith will be waiting for you in the café opposite the Pokemon Centre.”

**

“You wanted to talk?” He sat down opposite Faith at a table and shook his head at the waitress who approached. “I’m not staying long.”

Faith tried to take his hand but he snatched it away.

“I’m sorry I ran out on you Ash. I was angry. But I’m willing to give you another chance…”

“Faith,” Ash frowned, “You and I both know we’re over. Why are you here?”

“I want you to make the right decision…”

“Faith, if your idea of the ‘right decision’ is putting all of this down to a moment of temporary insanity and cutting Misty out of my life again… I can’t… I won’t make the same mistake twice.”

“Well what will the press say? I was the one next to you when you became Pokemon Master!” She reached out for his hand again, “‘Master cheats on girlfriend’, ‘Master has affair with Gym leader’. You have a good reputation, Ash, don’t ruin it!”

“Faith _you_ can tell the press anything you want! I don’t care anymore!” he moved to leave, “All I care about is making sure Misty is ok.”

“Making sure _Misty_ is ok? What about me? I’m the one getting dumped! Or Derek?” Ash froze, “You stole his girlfriend without even thinking about him!”

Ash turned to her, “Excuse me?”

“He was actually upset when I told him about you two; did you ever stop to think how you might be hurting people?”

Ash leant forward and placed his knuckles on the table. When he spoke his voice was harsh.

“I’ve been meaning to thank you for telling him, actually. He may have pulled a _gun_ on me,” Faith’s eyes widened, “But if you hadn’t have got involved I would never have found out…” he paused to bite his lip, “I would never have found out that Derek was hurting her.” He flopped back down into the chair and put his face in his hands. When he glanced up Faith was staring back at him in horror.

“Ash… I… I’m so sorry. Is she ok? Are _you_ ok?”

“I don’t know,” he tried to keep him voice level, but it betrayed him and he bit down on a knuckle to stop himself from crying. “She seems fine… even happy at times. But then it’s like something snaps and she’s hurting again. Me? I’m just regretting a lot of stuff right now.”

“Have you seen her today?” Faith asked quietly.

“Not since she left with Brock this morning to give a statement to Officer Jenny. Why? What’s wrong?” Faith had covered her face with her hands.

“Oh, Ash I’m so sorry I was so stupid,” her face crumpled, “I bumped into her and Brock… I said some things. I was angry! I didn’t know!”

“What kind of things, Faith?”

“I told her she was just cold feet… that you would get bored of her again. I was jealous! I didn’t mean them… I just wanted to punish her! I’m sorry!” Ash’s face, which had hardened at her words, softened when he realised her eyes were welling up. He finally reached forward and squeezed her hand.

“I’m sorry too, Faith. But Misty is _the_ One. She always has been. It just took me a while to figure that out.”

“I always knew that, Ash.” She smiled sadly, “I guess it just hurt a lot.” She tilted her head slightly and regarded him quietly. “She’s good for you…” she whispered.

“Sorry?” Ash looked shocked.

“She is… everyone knows that. When she’s around… you… you’re calmer. You got so much more bad tempered when you stopped seeing her. I’m sorry.”

This time she stood to leave, “I’m going home now, I’ll be on the train within an hour. Please, tell Misty I really am sorry. Maybe I’ll see you two around sometime?”

Ash nodded and she turned to the door.

“Faith? Thank you, for always being there for me… three years is a long time.”

She didn’t look back at him but the stiffening of her shoulders as she walked out the door told him she’d heard.

**

Misty turned to the Telescreen in the lobby of the Gym and hesitated. She so wanted to call her sisters, but that would mean telling them _everything._ She couldn’t do that down the phone. Instead she dialled a number that had always lurked in the back of her mind, tempting her. The dial tone gave way within three rings to an audible _click._

“Hello?” a voice rang out from the blank screen.

“Hi Mrs Ketchum… It’s Misty.”

“Misty! It’s Delia, dear, you know that,” Delia Ketchum smiled back at her through the screen, “Brock called to tell me Ash had cut his holiday short and that you both in Pewter City! How are you?”

Misty felt her lip quivering and found herself unable to speak.

“Misty, darling. What’s wrong?” Delia’s smile faded, “Is Ash there with you?”

“No… he’s talking to… he’s out at the moment.”

“Then tell me what’s wrong, did he do something to upset you?”

“No!” Misty eyes widened in horror, “No… Ash has been wonderful. It’s just…”

She looked away, barely able to see through the tears on her eyelashes.

“I’m sorry, I’m being so stupid,” she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, “It’s just… I’ve had a really bad day and Ash and Brock are out and I can’t call my sisters… and… and you’ve always been like a mother to me. Maybe I shouldn’t have called, I’m sorry.”

Delia looked at her sympathetically.

“Misty, dear, you know you’re always welcome to call. Do you want to tell me what’s bothering you?”

Misty tried to process her thoughts. Everything was so confused…

“Ash is out talking to Faith…”

Delia sighed.

“I thought maybe she was out of his life for good when Brock told me you had arrived in Pewter with Ash.”

“I thought so too… but then again, now I feel like the girl that got in the way of them. They were happy before, weren’t they?”

“Misty… Some people are very good at pretending. Ash has put on brave face these past few years even though I know he’s been hurting that you weren’t there with him.”

“Did he tell you that?” Misty murmured hopefully. Delia smiled.

“I’m his mother dear. I know these things.” She paused, looked hesitant.

“A week after he and Faith got engaged Ash called me up crying. I know he’d been drinking,” her eyes shone with tears, “It was a hard time for him. He was so stressed. He and Faith were at the ViridianCity on their way to visit Brock so when he called me so late at night I thought there’d been an emergency.”

She looked away from the screen and pinched the bridge of her nose.

“He didn’t have the screen on but I knew it was my Ash, even though he was crying so hard. He kept saying ‘I’ve got the wrong girl, Mum. She’s the wrong one.’ And when I tried to comfort him… ‘what have I done?’ over and over again. He hung up before I could say anything else but the next morning he was in Viridian Hospital. Someone found him in the forest…”

_I started drinking to try and block out everything that was wrong._

Misty let the tears stream down her face but Delia wiped her eyes, offering her a smile.

“I’m so glad you’re back Misty,” her eyes widened and drifted from Misty’s gaze, “Ash!”

“Hi Mum…”

Misty felt a hand rest on her shoulder and looked up at Ash’s face, full of concern.

“How did it go?” he whispered. Misty nodded.

“Fine… Brock was there for me and Officer Jenny was really understanding.” She kept her voice low but Delia raised her eyebrows.

“Officer Jenny? Is something wrong?” She looked between Ash and Misty.

“Mum, please, we can’t-“ Ash began, but Misty squeezed his hand. She felt stronger now. _We believe you, Misty._

“It’s alright,” she turned to the screen, “The man I was with… he hurt me… but Ash saved me. Officer Jenny is helping us.”

Delia’s eyes widened and again she looked to her son and then back to the girl at his side. She reached out to touch the screen but hesitated and drew her fingers back.

“I’m coming to Pewter!” she clutched her palm to her chest and leant forward when Misty opened her mouth to protest, “Misty, you’re like a daughter to me! Please, let me be there for you.”

Misty felt a strange sense of relief wash over her, echoed in the sigh she heard from Ash.

“Thank you,” she breathed. Delia nodded.

“Ash, I’ll go to Professor Oak’s and get your Pokemon from Gary. You don’t know how long you’ll have to stay in Pewter City.” Resolve dripped from every word.

“Thanks, Mum. I guess I’ll see you in a couple of days.”

Misty replaced the receiver and leant back against Ash’s chest. Stroking her hair Ash broke the silence.

“It’s over… Faith’s going back to Saffron Citytonight.”

“Oh,” Misty’s voice was quiet but the relief was clear.

“She told me what she said to you… I’m sorry. For what it’s worth she is too.”

“It’ ok, Ash… Your Mum made me feel a lot better.”

“I heard her… tell you about Viridian…” he squeezed her shoulder. Somehow it was easier to talk to her reflection in the Telescreen. “I was missing you so much. I knew I loved you… still. After I hit that low I felt so lucky when I arrived at the cabins and saw you there. Like I’d been given a second chance…”

Now she turned to face him and he knelt down so they were face to face.

“You felt lucky?” she ran her fingers in his hair and he leant forward to rest his head on her chest, “Ash, you _saved_ me.”


	18. Chapter Seventeen

  
“Do you really think it’s him Jenny? We’ve been looking for this guy for two years and you think he’s just fallen into our lap?” Paul leant back in his chair and regarded his partner. She didn’t look at him as he spoke, instead staring intently at the screen. A map of Kanto, sprinkled with coloured dots, flashed up in front of her.

“I don’t know. It does seem unlikely, doesn’t it?” she leant back in her chair and rubbed her face, “But the movements… seem to add up. We had him placed in the area of Mt Moon; some of the Pokemon we had tagged have disappeared in that area.” Paul grunted.

“You mean we found the tags in the bushes.”

“Yeah,” Jenny raised an eyebrow, “There was only so much we could do, Paul, to track a guy we know nothing about. We know his movements, we know what he’s been doing; but we have no clue _who_ he is.”

“Calling him ‘Target One’ can only get us so far, at least we have a name now. _If_ we can positively identify him as our guy?”

“We have a sketch of him from witness statements. Pokemon trainers and watchers in the area.” Jenny double-clicked and another picture flashed on the screen, “But it’s vague. No one seems to have gotten a good look at him. Even the security and CCTV images we have are from a distance.”

“Our guy in Giovanni’s place didn’t see him?” Jenny looked up at him as he placed his hands on the back of her chair and peered at the portrait on the screen, “We were sure _he_ was involved.”

“Even he got spooked. Our mole never even got a look at him. Target One, I mean.” Jenny sighed, “An operation too hot even for the man who created Team Rocket.” She scoffed. Paul collapsed back down in his chair and they sat in silence for a moment; the sun had set while they worked, leaving the glow of the screen the only light in the room.

“D’you think it’s ethical for us to ask her?” Paul said quietly. Jenny looked up at him quizzically.

“Misty,” he leaned back in his chair, placing both hands on the back of his head, “We march up to her and ask her to help us identify a wanted man… If it’s him we’ve hit the jackpot but in the process we’ve said ‘thanks a lot for getting raped by this guy! You’ve been a great help!’ We’re potentially going to shove a picture of her _rapist_ in her face.”

“I know,” Jenny put her head in her hands, “Poor girl. I’ve spoken to her, Ash, Nurse Joy… this has got to be one of the worst cases of domestic abuse I’ve ever seen.” She looked back towards Paul and lowered her voice, “But what choice do we have?”

“If this is the guy, and we catch him… we can put him away for a lot longer. Adding rape and assault to an already atrocious list of crimes? Maybe we can give Misty some comfort knowing that he’ll never walk the streets again. Still, you sure you want to be the one to go talk to her?”

“Yes. It has to be me; she needs to know I’m behind her. That we all believe her.” She sighed, “First thing in the morning I’ll head to Pewter Gym. Right now I think we all need to sleep.”

**

“Morning guys,” Ash stumbled into the kitchen, scratching the skin under his shirt lazily. Misty and Pikachu looked up at him and each stifled a laugh.

“You look pretty,” Misty teased and stuck her tongue out at him. Ash pouted and tried to flatten his bed-hair. He opened his mouth to retort but was startled by a vision in pink entering the kitchen.

“Morning Brock,” he raised an eyebrow, “Nice apron. Is it new?”

“Yeah!” Brock grinned at him, “I wore out my old one and I liked the trimmings on this one so I thought I’d treat myself.”

“Brock… it’s lacy…”

“And?”

“Never mind.”

He glanced back at Misty, who wore an expression of both contentment and amusement, and felt his heart warm a little. He had missed the three of them together. He watched the way Brock laughed with Misty, gossiping and teasing one another and felt a pang of sadness that his stupidity had forced them apart too.

His thoughts were pierced by the sound of a car horn outside. Brock leant over the sink and peered through the blinds.

“Officer Jenny?” Brock let the blinds click back into place and followed Ash and Misty into the lobby. Officer Jenny met them there with a briefcase in her hands.

“May we talk somewhere private?” she looked from Misty to Brock, who nodded and gestured to the next room, his den. He and Ash stood nervously, unsettled at the edges of the room as Jenny and Misty perched on the sofa in front of the television.

“Misty,” Officer Jenny leant across and covered Misty’s hand with her own, “We need… we think…” she stammered, drawing her hand back and covering her face.

“Have you found him?” Misty whispered with barely disguised hope.

“No… But we have cadets searching the woods around Mount Moon. No, I’m here because…” she took a deep breath, “Because we think Derek is part of something. Something we’ve been investigating for a long time. If we’re right, we can put him away for good. But… we need you.”

“You need me to identify him…” Misty finished for her. Jenny nodded quietly and picked up her bag. 

“We have a sketch… some witnesses have tried to describe the man we’re looking for. As well as some photographs taken, but they’re from a distance, hard to make out.” She looked down at the file in her hands, “I realise this may be too painful, if you can’t do this we understand. We can explore other avenues…” 

“I can do this,” Ash piped up from the corner, stepping forward to place his hands on Misty’s shoulders, “Misty, you don’t have to.” 

“I want to,” she spoke quietly but her words rang clear. She reached out took the file Jenny offered and held it so that Ash could see it over her shoulder. “It’s him.” 

“You’re sure?” Misty leant forward and pointed to the shadowed image in one of the photographs. 

“His gun… he holds it backwards when it’s on his shoulder. His hand is backwards I mean, like that-” She traced the outline of the figure with her finger. “It’s him.” 

“Misty, can you confirm his name for me please?” 

“Derek. Derek Levy.” 

“Thank you, excuse me a moment.” She reached for her phone and stepped out of the room, “ _Paul. It’s him, Derek Levy. Call me if you find anything.”_

Ash stepped round the side of the sofa and sat down next to Misty, wrapping her in his arms. When the door clicked open and shut again he looked up.

“What did he do? What’s this investigation?” he asked gently, Officer Jenny sat back down in an armchair and took the file from Misty, spreading the pages on the coffee table in front of them. 

“We’re still not entirely sure. Until we can find Derek we won’t know exactly what we’re up against. But it all started about two years ago; there were reports of Pokemon going missing in the area outside of Viridian. Pokemon watchers claimed that the movements were inconsistent with migration, that the ones they were watching were there one day and gone the next. At first we assumed that it was simply odd behaviour, that the construction around the cities was causing some distress. We had several researchers working in the Viridian Forest, where I was based at the time, to try and figure it out. We tried tagging some of the wild Pokemon, just with simple tracking devices, but they stopped disappearing. We thought it was just a phase of migration, now we know that the tags were noticed, that whoever was taking the Pokemon moved on. 

“We started getting complaints from trainers, they were being harassed to battle in the region, then their Pokemon stolen. We got some descriptions, but nothing matched the database. We thought it might be Team Rocket, but then they announced they were disbanding, ex-members were interviewed. Nothing. 

“Then it started happening around Mount Moon, wild Pokemon again. We can only assume that mugging trainers was deemed too risky. But again we had no clues, no leads, and no idea as to whether there was any connection. We had a mole in Giovanni’s organisation, hoping we could glean something, but as he wasn’t directly involved there were only the slightest rumours.” 

“Rumours?” Brock stepped forward, “Rumours of what?” 

“Underground labs, dissecting the bodies of Pokemon.” Misty looked up in horror. “We knew then that the Pokemon weren’t simply being caught en masse or held in cages. They were being killed. To what purpose we’re not sure. Research? Genetic mutation? Maybe the black market. All we know is this place exists, some of the ex-Rockets confirmed, but none of them could locate it. We even offered a reward but the trail grew cold. 

“About six months ago we finally found some leads; the same man had been spotted in both Viridian Forest and the woods surrounding Mount Moon, at about the same time as the disappearances. Those photos are CCTV images from the various private cabins and buildings scattered through the woods. We’ve been unable to identify him until now as he’d been off the radar for about a year before Pokemon started going missing outside Cerulean.” 

She took a piece of paper from the file she had given Misty and held it up for them. 

“We’ve colour coded a map as we get new leads; blue dots for ambushed trainers, red dots where we’ve found our tracking tags discarded. The yellow expanse, she traced the area from Cerulean to the Indigo Plateau with her fingertip, “Is where we’ve narrowed down the search for the location of the lab.” 

“So you think Derek’s running this whole thing?” Misty breathed. 

“No, we… we think he’s their chief supplier.” 

“Of dead Pokemon?” Misty gasped as Jenny nodded. 

“The plan was to find him and use an offer of some sort of legal immunity to convince him to tell us the location of the lab.” She looked up at Misty, her mouth set hard, “But not now. That bastard will get no favourable treatment.” 

Ash breathed a sigh of relief and tightened his grip on Misty’s shoulder. 

“I can’t believe this,” she murmured, to no one in particular, “All the business deals, the trips away… every time he got angry because a deal had fallen through,” her breath caught in her throat and she looked wide eyed at Ash, “He bought my Gym with dirty money!” 

Ash glanced over at Officer Jenny, who looked surprised but caught his eye. He shook his head slightly and she understood, letting Misty’s comment pass over her until he could better explain. 

“Misty, I know this is hard to hear,” Jenny said softly, “If you can take any comfort from this know that we _will_ find him and he _will_ be made accountable for what he has done to you. We’re going to lock him up for a very long time, Misty, I promise you.” 

Misty nodded and tried to smile, but her eyes were brimmed with tears and her lip quivered. Ash tried to put his arm around her but she leant forward, elbows resting on her knees and buried her face in her hands. For a moment the only sound in the room was her quiet sobbing until the screech of the telephone broke through the silence. Brock hurried out the room to answer it, returning moments later with a grim look on his face. 

“Misty,” he spoke gently, “It’s your sisters.”


	19. Chapter Eighteen

_It’s your sisters._

Misty looked towards Ash and saw her horror mirrored in his eyes.

“Misty…” Brock stepped closer, “It looks like they’re in the Pokemon Centre.”

_No…_

“They know…” Misty looked down at her lap and balled her fists into the folds of her dress, “They know and they’ll hate me.”

“Misty,” Ash drew her close, “They love you. They can’t hate you!” he tried to sound jovial but the effect fell flat on the cold ground around them, “Talk to them… I’ll be right here with you.”

His last words were whispered softly into her ear as he drew her to her feet. Ash’s arm around her shoulders was a small comfort to her, until they came to the Gym lobby and the flashing Telephone came into sight. Sat in the uncomfortable plastic chair in front of the screen Misty picked up the receiver slowly. The screen in front of her was blank but she still took a deep breath before raising the phone to her ear.

“Hello?” her voice shook.

“Misty!” Daisy’s voice, harsh and shrill, rang back at her. Part of her had hoped it would be Daisy; she was by far the most understanding of her sisters. The one she was closest with. But the disappointment in her sister’s voice, the harshness, was too much and it took all of her strength not to hang up.

“Daisy,” she sobbed, “I’m so, so sorry!”

“How could you do this to us, Misty?” Violet’s voice, muffled by the distance, sounded down the receiver, “Tell her to turn on the screen, Daisy."

“Misty?” Daisy said forcefully.

Misty felt her lip quiver as she reached to turn on the Telescreen. With the screen suddenly illuminated her sisters stared back at her; Daisy’s face was smudged with mascara, Lily’s red a shiny. Violet simply glared back at Misty, eyes harsh, arms folded. She opened her mouth to speak but Daisy interrupted her, instead she kept her eyes locked on Misty.

“Derek came to the Gym this morning, Misty,” Daisy’s voice was unnaturally level and Misty shrank back in her chair. She felt Ash’s hand on her shoulder but even he was little reassurance. Even at this distance her sisters could make her feel like the runt, the disappointment again.

“Oh…” there was nothing else to say that could make this better. Not over the phone. Not like this, with them angry at her.

“Oh? Oh!” Daisy leant towards the screen, eyes blazing, “Is that all you have to say?”

“I- I’m sorry!” Misty whimpered.

“Daisy!” Ash tightened his grip on Misty’s shoulder and glared at the screen.

“Shut up Ash,” Daisy snapped, “Misty, he’s taken our Gym! How could you do this!”

“Yeah, he had some contract you’d, like, signed.” Lily crammed into view next to Daisy.

“He kicked us out!”

“He’s like, barricaded himself in. He snatched the keys off of me and told us to stay out!” Violet leant forward.

“The police won’t tell us anything Misty! We’ve tried getting them involved but it’s like they’re glad he’s there!” Lily and Violet were more petulant than Daisy.

“Misty please! Just talk to him! Whatever fight you two have had you can get through. Maybe he’ll agree to give the Gym back!” Daisy looked imploringly at her. _She can’t see the scars. She doesn’t know. She wouldn’t tell you too if she knew._

“Come back home and talk to him, please, Misty.” Daisy turned to Violet, “Vi, go get Derek!”

“No!” Misty didn’t even recognise the strangled cry that escaped her lips, or the fingers that clawed wildly at the screen. For a moment she forgot where she was, that Ash and Brock were there behind her. All she saw was Derek’s smirk and glaring eyes, staring down and through her as he found her again. She took a deep breath and found herself again. Her sisters stared back at her as she sobbed.

“Please,” she whispered, “Don’t tell him where I am.”

Violet and Lily stepped forward as Daisy lowered her voice.

“Misty… did he threaten you?” she said softly. Misty looked up at her, lip quivering, and shook her head forcefully and frantically. _They can’t find out like this_.

“I can’t do this now… just please, come to Pewter. Don’t tell him. Whatever you do don’t tell him.” She wiped the tears from her face and stared back at her sisters, pleading with her eyes for them to understand.

“Misty, I’m sorry,” the anger in Daisy’s voice dissipated, “What happened, Sweetheart?”

“I… I can’t. Please…” words began to fail Misty and she let her tears fall freely

“Can’t you see you’re upsetting Misty?” Ash put his hands on her shoulder. Violet pushed Daisy out of the way.

“Ash, this is none of your business! This is between the Cerulean Sisters!”

Officer Jenny stepped forward, leaning into the screen.

“Actually, this is now between Derek and the police. Listen to your sister and get out of Cerulean right now!” she said firmly, “The man is dangerous, you’re not safe there. I’m sending my cousins round to the Pokemon Centre and your Gym right away!”

Ash stepped closer to the screen.

“Please,” he spoke softly and ran the back of his hand down Misty’s hair to rest on her shoulder, “Don’t tell him you’re coming here.”

Misty felt suddenly horribly aware of everyone staring at her. Like a million pairs of eyes boring into her every pore. Ash’s hands were warm on the bare skin of her shoulder, the fabric of the dress she wore unfamiliar. Borrowed from one of Brock’s sisters and another reminder of what had happened. Involuntarily she shuddered away from Ash’s touch, shrinking down in her chair. Her skin felt itchy and tight. Voices rang loudly, yet somewhat muffled, in her ears.

_The police?_

_Did Derek hurt Misty?_

_I can’t discuss that over the phone._

_Just look at her! Misty… what did he do?_

When she looked up all three of her sisters were staring wide-eyed back at her. She moved her arm to cradle her waist, the memory of Derek’s assault forcing itself to the forefront of her mind. She realised that they knew, they could see through her thinly veiled words and they knew what he had done to her. Ash’s grip on her shoulder softened and she leant forward, covered her face with her free hand and let a sob escape her lips.

“No…” Daisy breathed, raising her hand to the glass of her Telescreen, her fingertips seemed unnaturally magnified, as if it was only glass, not miles, separating the two of them. Misty wished that she could reach through and touch her, just for the feeling of Daisy’s hand on her own. Like the way she gripped tightly when they helped each other climb from the pool; protective, supportive. Daisy’s own eyes filled with tears at the feel of the cold glass on her fingers and she stood quickly and fled. Lily followed, pausing only to throw a pained look at Misty before she, too, disappeared from view.

“We’re on our way, Misty.” Violet sat in front of the screen, her words distracted from but didn’t stifle the sound of Daisy crying in the background.

_“I set them up, Lily! I did this!”_

“We love you, Misty,” Violet murmured, “We really do.”

Misty broke down before the screen went blank and Ash gently took the receiver from her hand and placed it back on the hook. He held Misty tightly in his arms as she sobbed, her hands buried in the folds of his shirt.

“They won’t look at me the same anymore Ash. I’m not their baby sister anymore I’m something ruined.”

Ash felt suddenly powerless. This was real. The police were involved. This had _happened._

To _Misty._

To his best friend.

He knew how her sisters must feel. Like they had been both powerless to protect her and too involved in their own lives to notice.

“He’s ruined everything.” Holding Misty in his arms as she sobbed and murmured didn’t feel like enough.

**

Violet replaced the phone slowly, Misty’s distraught image vanished and she sat staring at the blank screen. Daisy’s cries could still be heard in the background.

“That wasn’t our baby sister! She looked so lost…” she wept, “What has he done to her!”

“You can’t, like, blame yourself, Dais.” Lily draped an arm around her sister’s shoulders, “None of us knew.”

“But I’m the one that introduced them! I’m the one Misty talks too!” Daisy raised her head from her hands and glared into the distance, “I’m the oldest. I’m supposed to protect you all."

“You couldn’t have known…” Lily stroked her back.

“How terrified must she have been to not tell me?” Daisy lowered her voice from anguished cries to a murmur of disbelief. “For her to act so scared.”

Violet sank to the floor at her feet and rested her head on Daisy’s knee. Her tongue hung limply in her mouth, paralysed by the image of Misty drawing herself in, Officer Jenny stepping forward to warn them… What had she tried to tell them?

What had happened to their little sister?


	20. Chapter Nineteen

Ash and Pikachu sat despondently by the entrance to the Gym. Ash had picked up a branch from one of the trees Brock was currently trimming and drew pictures in the sawdust and debris at his feet.

“Nice day today Ash!” Brock’s voice rained down from above. It sounded muffled and when Ash looked up he realised he could only see Brock’s trainers, peaking out from the leaves. He grunted in reply and refocused his attentions on the ground. The weather _was_ unabashedly sunny, unlike Ash’s mood which had grown worse overnight. He wasn’t sure why, the feeling had crept up on him slowly, but he felt powerless around Misty now, like everything was escaping his control completely. Brock was suddenly the mother in their lives, making sure Misty ate right and slept well. Officer Jenny had swooped into their lives and taken control like a strange sort of father-figure. Ash was grateful; boy was he grateful for their help and the way they seemed to calm Misty completely.

But the way they seemed to know instinctively what to do? They made him feel like…

“A kid.”

“Pika?”

“I’m a fucking kid drawing fucking Pokeballs on the ground!”

“Pi!”

“Ash! Language!” Brock’s voice sounded petulant.

“Sorry,” Ash spoke loud enough for Brock to hear and lowered his voice for Pikachu, “See buddy? This is what I mean. I feel so useless!”

“Pika?”

“It’s just… it’s like I’ve done my bit for Misty. No… that’s not right.” Ash sat silently for a moment, then jabbed the ground with the stick, “It is like that. Like there’s nothing more I can do for her right now. She has Brock and Jenny, and soon her sisters, to take care of her. There’s nothing more I can do… I feel so helpless.”

“Pi…”

“I know buddy… I’ll go see her when I’m not feeling as tired.”

He had told Misty the night before he would be sleeping on the sofa in Brock’s den, and had then failed to do even that. He thought the privacy would do her some good, that she needed some time without him crowding her. So he left Pikachu asleep on his old pillow, kissed her good night and pulled an old sleeping bag down the hall to sleep. But after an hour of tossing and turning sleeplessly he had given up, picked his sleeping bag back up and dragged it to the corridor outside her room. Through the door he could hear Misty breathing softly; not loud enough to be a snore but that gentle, sing song way that used to lull him to sleep.

Brock had found him the next morning asleep on the floor and had prodded him awake before Misty woke up and tripped over him.

Ash looked up at his friend, who was carefully manoeuvring his way down the ladder.

“What time are Misty’s sisters getting here?”

Brock wiped his hand on a far-less-frilly apron and looked at his watch.

“I got a call about an hour ago from Jenny. Her cousin in Cerulean escorted the girls out of the City early this morning. They wanted to come straight away but Jenny told them to wait and get some rest then get moving while it’s still dark. They’ve got a rented car but even if they stop off on the way they should be here by noon.”

Ash nodded and continued prodding the ground sombrely.

“What are you, five?” Brock cocked his head to look at the doodles in the ground, “It’s a very nice picture Ash, I’m sure your Mum would be very proud.”

Ash grunted and smudged the sawdust with his foot.

“Pikapi?”

“Whatever, Ash.” Brock drew his apron over his head and let it fall to the ground at Ash’s feet. “I’d say you woke up on the wrong side of the floor today but I know something’s been bothering you. When you’re feeling like a grown up again come talk to me.”

Ash didn’t look up as Brock passed, merely shifted his weight to allow him through the door. Pikachu looked up at him sadly.

“I’m twenty-one Pikachu. I’m the _Pokemon Master._ Why do I suddenly feel like I’m ten years old again?”

“Pi.” Pikachu nodded sagely.

“You know how I feel? I feel like I did when we first met. Sitting in the Pokemon Centre waiting room knowing someone I cared for was in trouble and there was nothing I could do. Just wait for someone else to come through.”

He met Pikachu’s gaze with wet eyes and patted his friend on the head.

“That’s how I feel now, Pikachu. Like I can’t do anything to help anymore.”

**

Misty was awake by the time Ash had kicked the sawdust off of his shoes and re-entered the kitchen. He walked up behind her as she sat stirring her coffee and wrapped his arms around her.

“Morning, Myst,” he breathed into her neck and stroked her hair. She leaned back into him and for a moment he forgot about Brock, standing staring at them in his breakfast apron.

“How did you sleep?” she craned her neck slightly to look at him.

“Terribly,” Ash pulled back and scratched his head sheepishly. “The sofa’s not nearly as comfy as it looks.” He threw Brock a warning glance and took the seat next to Misty. “I just want to give you some space. I feel like I’m overcrowding you.”

He turned to Brock before she could reply.

“What’s for breakfast?”

“Pancakes…” Brock said slowly, his eyebrow raised.

“Thanks, Brock,” Misty stood up, “But I’m not that hungry just now. I’m going to go get dressed first.”

Ash looked at her briefly as she left but quickly focussed his attention on the mug of coffee left for him on the table.

“Alright, Ash,” Brock sat down opposite him at the table, “What’s going on?”

Ash fiddled pathetically with his mug and avoided Brock’s gaze.

“You’ve been acting weird all morning. If something’s bothering you-“

“I’m scared, Brock.”

Ash spoke quietly and looked up briefly at Brock, who nodded his head slightly. Without the words forming consciously in his mind Ash began to splutter.

“I keep having this dream where I’m hurting her. All those things Derek did… in my dream I’m the one doing it. And I just see her screaming but I know no one will help her because I’m the one who’s supposed to save her and I _can’t_. It’s like I’m watching me, but there’s nothing I can do because me saving her isn’t real but me hurting her is.”

“Ash… it’s just a dream. We all know you’d never hurt her.”

“But in the morning I wake up and I can’t look at myself, let alone her. I thought sleeping apart might stop it. But last night I just got so freaked out that something might happen, before I went back to the corridor I imagined Derek coming after her and me not being there to save her.”

Brock sat back and folded his arms, giving Ash a lopsided look.

“What do I do, Brock? I know I’m being stupid but I feel like such a mess. Misty doesn’t need this! You and Jenny… you’re so, _together_ all of the time. Like you’ve got everything under control. While I’m sat here worrying that I might say something stupid and drag Misty back down, or if I touch her I’ll remind her. Or I’ll do something to hurt her. I love her, Brock. I know I’d never hurt her. So why am I suddenly too afraid?”

Brock remained silent for a moment, absently checking his nails. When the silence became too pressing he pushed a plate of pancakes across the table towards Ash.

“Ash eat up.”

“Brock… did you hear a word of what I just said?”

“Of course I did. Now eat up.”

“Oh… ok.” Ash took a bite and involuntarily groaned, “That’s good. I was hungry.”

“Ash,” Brock’s voice grew serious, “I’m scared too. I’m scared that Misty won’t get through this. That she’ll end up hating herself. That there’ll be nothing I can do about it.” He paused to steal a bite from Ash’s plate, “But I know me acting scared won’t help. That’s not what Misty needs. She needs me to be strong, so I’ll be strong for her. Even if all I want to just crawl up into a ball.”

“She needs me to be strong too…” Ash jabbed his fork into the syrup miserably.

“Maybe… but I think she needs you to be _yourself_ more. You’ve grown up a lot from when we were kids, Ash. We all have. But that doesn’t mean to say that we don’t have the same dynamic. You always say stupid things, Ash.”

“Hey!” Ash sprayed pancake crumbs over the table in his indignation.

“Ash,” Brock raised an eyebrow.

“Fine,” Ash wiped his mouth and waved his hand for Brock to continue.

“You _do_ say stupid things, Ash. And Misty knows that. The fact that you’re now watching your every word and acting all weird around her is just going to make things worse.”

He moved to continue but was interrupted by the sound of a car horn from outside.

“Ah, that’ll be Misty’s sisters,” Brock’s voice brightened and Ash groaned.

“You cannot flirt with them, Brock.”

Brock affected a hurt look and pulled off his apron.

“I’ll try,” he winked at Ash, “Go get Misty. I’ll be good, I promise.”

**

“And that’s when Ash saved me,” Misty’s voice, which had been quiet and subdued as she spoke to her sisters, brightened slightly with a mixture of relief and pride. Ash felt all eyes on him and blushed deeply. Thankfully, and he felt guilty for the thought, the moment passed and Misty’s sisters turned back to her.

The four of them were gathered round the sofa, the three older Cerulean sisters, usually always so pristine, looking dishevelled. It touched Ash in a strange way that they had rushed over so quickly, without a moments thought for themselves, and he felt bad for ever seeing them as selfish. Daisy hadn’t left Misty’s side since they arrived at the Gym and even now sat with her arm wrapped tightly around her little sister’s shoulders. Violet occupied the armchair closest to them, handing Misty a tissue whenever the last one became too soggy, while Lily had taken a seat on the floor at Misty’s feet and held her free hand.

Ash had hung back.

He wanted to be there for Misty and he knew how difficult it would be to tell her sisters what had happened. But the three of them had rallied round their little sister brilliantly and now he felt like he was intruding. He fetched them all a drink and when he came back Misty seemed somewhat cheerier.

“Myst?” he held out her drink.

“It’s so cute you still call Misty that!” Lily beamed up at him from the floor and he felt himself blush again.

“We always knew you two would end up together in the end!” Violet said brightly. Ash’s eyes wandered towards Daisy, whose eyes had welled up again.

“Oh,” she whimpered, snatching a tissue from Violet’s hand, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be the one getting upset. I’m just… I’m so sorry Misty!” She pulled Misty into her arms and sobbed loudly. From where Ash was standing he could see Misty crying silently and offered her a small smile whish she returned.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Daisy pulled back and dabbed her eyes delicately. Ash briefly wondered how someone could go from blubbery tears one moment and acting daintily the next. He put it down to a girl thing.

“Erm…” he broke the silence ungracefully, “Me and Brock were thinking of going to the café opposite the Pokemon Centre later. He thought you could all do with a coffee. Maybe.” He finished lamely.

Misty smiled up at him as he squirmed.

“That’s be great, Ash,” she said softly. The room went quiet as she looked up at him, both oblivious to her sister’s grins and shared glances.

The moment was ruined when Lily jumped up and gasped.

“What are you, like, wearing?” Lily brought her hands up to cover her face and looked at Misty in mock horror. Her smile gave her away and Misty giggled slightly.

“Brock leant me some dresses. Some of his sisters’ old stuff.”

Daisy pulled back slightly and looked Misty up and down, “What happened to _your_ clothes?” she asked hesitantly. Misty smiled gently at her but her lips twisted unnaturally.

“Derek slashed them,” she said softly. Daisy’s eyes betrayed her horror but she rallied.

“I’m taking you shopping!” she grabbed her bag and rummaged through it to find her purse, “Come on, Misty. I never get to treat you!”

“Lily? Vi?” Misty turned to her sisters hopefully.

“We so totally can’t afford a whole shopping trip,” Lily grabbed Violet’s arm, “If Vi here buys anymore we’re gonna have to send her to rehab!”

“It’s true,” Violet nodded.

“But here,” Lily pulled a note from her pocket, “Buy something on us!”

“No… Lily I couldn’t,” Misty held up her hands.

“Come on Misty! Aren’t you fed up of hand-me-downs?” Misty took the money from Lily’s outstretched hand and mouthed a _thank you._

“Ash?” Daisy turned to him, “Fancy being our bag carrier?”

Ash grimaced and scratched his head.

“Er… I… Erm.”

“I’m kidding Ash.”

Ash threw Misty a pained look and she giggled.

“We’ll meet you at the café afterwards, Ash,” she said gently, and squeezed his hand.

**

Overloaded with shopping bags some time later Misty found herself walking back towards the café, Daisy rummaging though their bags as they walked. She chatted amicably as they strolled, but Misty felt herself suddenly weighed down by something else. She stopped and turned to Daisy, who went quiet. 

“I really am sorry, Daisy. For not telling you about the Gym.”

Daisy took the bags from her and put them on the pavement before drawing her into a hug and Misty briefly saw her eyes well up with tears.

“Misty… I’m the one who should be sorry. We put too much pressure on you,” she pulled back and brushed Misty’s hair away from her face with her fingertips, “I’m sorry you couldn’t come to us before.”

“I…” Misty bit her lip, “I was just scared I’d go back to being the runt again.”

“Misty,” Daisy smiled slightly, “You will _never_ go back to being the runt. Trust me. We’re all totally jealous of the woman you’ve turned into!”

Misty blushed, “Thanks... Daisy.” She whispered. Daisy grinned at her but then her expression changed.

“Misty, I forgot my purse!” she grabbed her arm and gasped, “Let me go find it, I’ll meet you in the café. Get me a latte!”

She turned and ran back down the street, shopping bags flapping behind her. Misty sighed and watched her sister take flight round the corner.

“Well hi there, Misty.” Misty froze, her heart suddenly racing. When she turned round she spluttered and gripped her bag.

“Tom… What… what are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same thing.” He raised an eyebrow convivially, but his eyes were sinister. Misty took a step back.

“I… I’m just…” her tongue fell limp in her mouth.

“Derek’s been asking around for you,” Tom stepped closer again and Misty felt the cold wall on the back of her legs. “He wants to know where you are.”

_Oh,_ she wasn’t sure if she’d spoken or the word had been lost in her throat. She glanced back in the direction Daisy had run. _Please come back soon._

Tom gave her a look she couldn’t determine. For a moment she thought he might be genuinely concerned, then-

“Who was the last man you had sex with, Misty?” Tom asked suddenly, his grin turning into a leer. He pulled her by her forearms into a side alley and kissed her hard.

“Was it Derek?” For a brief second Misty felt herself kissing him back, but at the mention of Derek’s name she recoiled.

“Come back to my hotel room. Maybe we can erase all that.” She shook her head but her neck felt painfully paralysed. Tom grinned and reached back down.

“Ok then, how about right here.” He murmured into her ear, “And maybe, if you’re good to me, I can forget all about seeing you today.”

She felt his hand under her skirt and him pressed hard against her. She was confronted by the vivid memory of him pawing at her in Derek’s apartment; she too drunk and sedated to push him away, Derek slowly drinking himself into oblivion in the corner. One hand pushing her legs apart, the other showing paper notes in her pocket. Notes which Derek had later swiped from her discarded shorts as Tom forced her down on the sofa, letting the door click shut behind him as she cried out.

_He’s a business partner. Keep him happy, Misty._ Derek had sneered as she lay sobbing and curled up in a ball.

 _I thought you wouldn’t let him... I thought I was yours._ She had whispered when her self esteem hit rock bottom. When she thought possession was love.

_The price was right._

“Derek used to tell me all the things you were good at,” Tom’s hand reached round to cup her butt, jerking her back into the present, “But hey, if it’s where your talents lie. You could have made him a fortune.” He sneered as she craned her face away from him.

“What was it he said? Oh yeah,” he leant into her and spoke softly in her ear, “’If I find her, I’ll blow her fucking brains out’.” He leant in to kiss her again, forcing her head back into the wall, “One night and he’ll never know. I’ve heard you like it dirty.”

“Stop, Tom, please.”

“Come on, Misty. I’ve seen the way you look at me. I’ll make it worth your while,” as he held up his wallet and grinned Misty let out a painful sob. She thought she could hear footsteps and she prayed someone would happen to glance down the alley as they passed.

“Get away from her!” Tom’s head swung to the side as Brock’s fist collided with his chin. Misty found herself on the floor, crouched next to the wall. Everything had happened so fast but when she found herself a looked to the side she saw Brock and Ash standing over Tom, who was trying desperately to crawl away.

“Wait!” she grabbed Ash’s trouser leg, “Don’t let him go! He’ll tell Derek where I am!”

Ash froze but Brock acted for him, grabbing Tom’s collar and dragging him to his feet. When Ash turned round Daisy was running towards them with her phone to her ear. In the distance he could hear the siren of Jenny’s bike. Without any idea what he should be doing Ash dropped to his knees at Misty’s side, his hands hanging an inch away from her, pushed away by an invisible barrier.

A second passed and she fell into him. He thought she would cry, but instead she took his hand gently and looked down at it, running her fingertips across his knuckles.

“There’s so much I haven’t told you, Ash.” She whispered, and brought his hand to her lips to kiss. Ash squeezed her fingers gently then wrapped both arms tightly around her. The barrier gone almost as swiftly as it had arisen.

“Tell me when you’re ready Misty,” he whispered softly, “I’m not going anywhere.”

And he meant it. He realised he would rather mess things up than run away from her now. He picked them both off of the floor in time to see Jenny’s bike screech round the corner, followed by Paul in his van. She handcuffed Tom without reading his rights, her mouth set into a hard, grim line, and bundled him into the back of Paul’s van.

“I can’t believe… Tom?”

Misty whipped her head round to look at Daisy.

“You knew him?” she whispered.

“We went to the Cerulean Summer Ball together when we were kids,” Daisy’s voice had a dreamy, far-off quality to it. But then she caught Misty’s gaze and her eyes widened, “Misty! I’m so sorry for leaving you!”

“Daisy,” Misty put a hand on her sister’s arm, “It’s ok. Really. Look,” she turned her head towards Jenny and Paul, “They caught him.”

Ash was surprised to see her smiling. But there it was, a smile that lit up her face and Ash paused to stare at what had become a rarity recently.

“Come on,” Brock spoke softly from behind him. “Let’s get Misty home.”

**

When everyone had gone to bed Ash wandered through the Gym towards his truck. The light of Brock’s garage was off but with some amount of hobbling around in the dark by the wall Ash managed to locate the switch. The long, slightly decrepit looking bulb flashed once pessimistically, crackled slightly then cast a dull glow over the room. Ash located his keys in his back pocket and fumbled with the lock of his boot, throwing it open to reveal the bags and belongings he had hastily thrown in almost a week earlier.

“Where is it?” he whispered absent-mindedly, pushing aside piles of clothes.

“Ah…” his hand brushed something cool and solid and he pulled out a bottle, still corked and full of wine. Further investigation revealed a corkscrew and he opened the bottle clumsily, taking a swig. Leaving the boot unlocked, the garage seemed secure enough, he switched off the light and ambled back into the Gym towards Brock’s den.

Safely back on the sofa he took another long glug of drink and settled into the cushions.

“Need a hand finishing that? Or a glass, maybe?” He turned at the sound of Daisy’s voice and gestured for her to join him, smiling thinly.

“You’re still drinking then?”

“Looks that way.” He answered bluntly.

“May I?”

He held out the bottle for her to take but she crinkled her nose.

“Ew! Ash, I meant from a glass. There’s no way I’m drinking from _that!_ It’s unladylike.”

“Suit yourself,” he smiled, genuinely this time and got up to fetch a glass from the cabinet. Daisy studied the bottle.

“You know, for a Pokemon Master you sure do have poor taste in wine.”

“But you still want some?” he grinned and held out two glasses for her to fill.

“After today? It’s more a question of I _need_ some.”

Ash said nothing, instead staring down at the label of the bottle she had placed back in his hands, his elbows resting on his knees. They sat in silence for a moment; the only light from the dim reading lamp at Ash’s side, the only noise the sound of the tree branches brushing together outside the window. He took a deep breath.

“Do you think she’ll be ok?”

Daisy sat back against the sofa.

“I don’t know,” she said finally and Ash nodded slightly. Disappointed. “Misty’s strong. Stronger than the rest of us girls. But… I don’t know.”

She looked over at him and in the shadow of her face he saw how tired she looked. Still, she offered him a smile.

“All I know is she’s got a better chance of getting through this if you’re there with her.”

Ash pushed himself out of the chair suddenly and paced over to the window. Daisy watched him move but remained where she sat. He turned to her, face pained and blotchy.

“I don’t know what to do, Daisy!”

“Ash…” Daisy stood up but remained a few paces away, placing her glass back down on the table. “None of us know what to do. But we’ll help Misty get through this. I saw how you act around her, you’re what she needs.” she smiled, “Lils, Vi and I already think you’re a hero for saving our baby sister.”

“I’m no hero Daisy!” Ash turned away from her and braced his hands on the window ledge, “Anyone else would have done the same as me. Hell! Brock would have done something sooner. He wouldn’t have taken so long to figure Derek out. He didn’t even hesitate with Tom! He was the one who saw her through the window and bolted.”

“Ash…”

“No! Daisy! I hesitated! I saw she was in trouble and I didn’t know what to do. I’m not a hero. I’m a guy who’s always in the right place at the right time!”

Daisy placed a hand on his shoulder. Ash could see them both clearly reflected in the blackness of the window pane and for a moment he thought he saw a slight smile on Daisy’s face, although he knew he must be mistaken.

“Ash…” Daisy gave his other shoulder a sisterly pat, “Misty doesn’t see it like that. You’ve always been her hero.” 


	21. Chapter Twenty

Before Ash opened his eyes he knew the hangover would be bad; screwing up his face and praying he had remembered to close the curtains, he waited for the spots in his vision to clear away and risked a peep. The room was dimmer than he’d thought, the light from the open window blocked out by his mother’s head, resting on the armrest.

“Mum!”

“Hello dear. Sleep well?”

“When did you get here?” he jumped up from the sofa and pulled the blanket around him, suddenly conscious of his boxers.

“About an hour ago. You and Misty were still asleep so I thought I’d help Brock with some errands. But I couldn’t resist coming in to see you!”

“That’s great Mum,” Ash blushed, then rallied, pulling her into a hug.

“How is she doing?” Delia softened her voice. Ash stiffened slightly.

“I… I’m not sure, Mum. I… I haven’t handled things very well.”

“Brock told me about… yesterday.”

Ash sat back down on the sofa and buried his face in his hands. He’d tried to avoid thinking about that until now. Misty’s words still rang clearly in his head.

_There’s so much I haven’t told you._

He had told her to wait until she was ready, but at the same time he wondered if _he_ would ever be ready to hear it.

“I don’t think I’m mature enough for this, Mum.”

“Ash,” he mother smiled kindly, “You’re a grown man. The Pokemon Master! Surely you’re-“

“No, Mum. This isn’t the kind of thing I thought either of us would have to deal with. I’m scared, Mum.” He wiped his hot face, “Everyone keeps telling me to _be there_ for her. But I have no idea how to do that!”

“Ash, no one knows what to do at the moment; you just have to trust yourself to do the right thing. Maybe she _needs_ you act like nothing’s changed…”

“But that’s just the problem! Things _have_ changed now Mum and I don’t think I can pretend everything’s alright. I’m scared of hurting her. I’m scared of saying the wrong thing. Hell, I’m too scared to be around her in case I do something wrong-!”

“Ash?” Misty’s voice, soft from the doorway, interrupted him and he felt his heart sink. He met her eye and found no humour there.

“Myst… how long were you there?”

“Long enough,” she said simply, regarding him with a look he did not like.

“Hello, dear,” Delia stepped forward and Misty raised her eyes to force a smile, “It’s good to see you again.”

“It’s good to see you too, Mrs- Delia,” she let Delia squeeze her hand but frowned, “Can you give Ash and I a sec?”

Delia hurried out of the room, shooting Ash a comforting glance as she left. Yet Ash found himself gulping, his hands suddenly shaking slightly. Misty said nothing for a long moment and he hoped to break the silence with a joke, but she stared him down, her mouth set straight.

“My sister’s have been fussing around me more in the half hour since I’ve been up than in the past twenty years,” she spoke unnaturally levelly, her fists clenched, “And I don’t need you treating me like a little girl.”

“You know what they’re like,” he tried to keep his tone airy, “They want to rally round for you, try and help any way they ca-“

“I don’t need them all to ‘rally round’ for me!” her voice raised in pitch and Ash hung his head, “And I don’t need you acting like I’m a china doll!” Ash raised his head to protest but she silenced him again, “You know, Ash, every time someone looks at me at the moment I feel dirty again. Like I need _another_ shower because _he’s_ done it _again_. As long as you all act like you’re treading on eggshells he’s got a hold of me and I hate it!”

She twisted away from him, her arms locked together. He thought she looked fragile again, as if she was closing in on herself.

“You don’t look at me and see me anymore, Ash! You see what _he_ did!”

And when it was made as plain to him he realised she was right.

“Part of me regrets you finding out,” she said softly, averting her eyes to the floor, “At least before you’d look at me like you wanted me. Not like you’re scared of me.”

“Misty, please,” Ash tried to hold her hands to his chest, but she pulled away and folded her arms. He reached out again but she turned away from him, instead looking out of the window at the rain drizzling down the glass.

“Talk to me?” he whispered desperately, brushing his hands on her shoulders.

“No Ash! You’re the worst of them all!” she turned on him and once again he found himself so close, yet so unable to reach her. Without another word she turned and stormed from the room, marching, fists clenched, down the hallway.

“Misty!” he pleaded, “I’m trying. Please! Just sit down…”

She shook her head fiercely, but he still saw the tears in her eyes, “I _can’t_ talk to you, Ash,” she whispered, “I just _can’t._ ”

“Ok Misty! Fine!” he pulled her by the arm towards him, grasping her gently but firmly, “I _am_ scared, alright. I’m scared that if I do something to mess this up it’ll be all over for us. I’m scared that I’ll do or say the wrong thing. I’m even scared that I’ll end up hurting you worse-“ he cut himself off, but she didn’t take her eyes of him and he felt he had to continue, “That I’ll hurt you worse than he did.”

Misty said nothing, simply pulled her arm out of his grasp. Ash felt her slipping away and his tongue ran loose.

“I’m sorry Misty! I know I’m not being there for you but- but you’re right! I can’t get _that_ image out of my head. Him hurting you and me realising he’d been doing it all along and I hadn’t _been_ there for you. I’ve been a terrible friend to you for years; I’m scared I can’t make up for it now. No matter how much I love you!”

Still she said nothing, only fixed her gaze on him and clenched her fists.

“But I _do_ love you, Misty. So much. Me being scared is _my_ problem, not yours, and you shouldn’t keep things bottled up!”

“Please, Misty,” he tried to pull her close again, wanted to kiss her instead of speaking, but she stood dead still and he was afraid he’d find resistance if he tried to embrace her. They stood at a deadlock, eyes fixed on one another, until Misty broke away, turning to slam her door in Ash’s face.

“Misty!” he raised his fist to bang on the door but simply let it rest against the wood of the frame. “I’m sorry…” he murmured to the wood. There was no sound for a moment, and then Misty’s voice, wracked into sobs, clattered from within.

Reluctantly he pulled away from the doorframe, pausing to wipe his eyes, and backed down the corridor. The kitchen door was closed, but he had the feeling they would have been overheard nevertheless. His suspicions were confirmed by the look the group assembled in the kitchen gave him as he entered. He immediately averted his gaze and they remained silent; watching him sit down roughly in a vacant chair and scowl in front of him.

Ash sat with his fists clenched, anger brewing within him. His head still hurt and his mind was foggy, but the haze of the hangover wasn’t enough to numb the shame of the morning. He glanced periodically at the door, hoping to see her come in, sit down and smile at him. But the door remained fastened, and he came to realise there was muttered talking around him. Brock had placed a plate of pancakes down on the table and was now standing by the window with Daisy and Delia, talking quietly but animatedly. Ash raised a forkful of food to his mouth but watched them intently.

“Officer Jenny says that Tom guy is refusing to talk,” Brock spoke as if conveying some piece of trivia, but his frown betrayed his worry and Daisy put her head in her hands.

Ash looked back down at his plate, his hands tightly locked around his knife and fork.

“He thinks they can’t touch him, its Misty’s word against his…”

The silence that ensued was broken suddenly by the smash of china breaking on the floor. Brock and his two companions swung round but Ash was already gone, his plate flung across the kitchen floor and the door clicking shut behind him.

**

Ash let his anger lead the way for him as he stormed down the road away from the gym.

He wondered why he couldn’t get past this. This permanent wall in front of him. He knew he was scared; scared of all the things he admitted to his Mum and Misty, scared he wasn’t strong enough for her after all.

His thoughts left him as he looked up at the police station before him, took a deep breath, and entered. Down the corridor Ash found himself in the main office, confronting a surprised Jenny.

“Where is he?” he demanded, glaring down at Jenny. She said nothing, but he caught Paul glance towards a side room. Before they could stop him he barged through the door and found him, sitting smirking at the table. When he saw Ash his face fell and Ash saw a flash of fear overtake him. Before he could run Ash lunged forward, grabbing Tom by the throat and forcing him to crash out of his chair.

“What the hell did you do to her?”

Ash gripped Tom’s collar tighter as Officer Jenny stumbled into the room after him. The man was smirking. _Smirking!_ Ash dimly recognised that his right hand encircled Tom’s throat but before he hand a chance to react to this he felt a hand on his shoulder. The red lifted from his eyes, but his hands remained steadfast.

“Come on mate,” Paul’s voice was calm but it pierced the room, “He’s not worth it. Go home.”

He half-coaxed, half-prised Ash’s hands away from Tom, who fell lightly back onto the floor. Ash glared at him for a moment before turning his back, moving to leave the room.

“Whatever I did the little whore enjoyed it.” Ash froze at Tom’s voice, balled his hand and swung round, his fist connecting with Tom’s jaw. The man reeled backwards, clutching his face and moaning, but Ash just stared down at him, his face set hard.

“Stay away from her,” he hissed, loud enough to silence the room. In the quiet Paul stepped forward, hauled the groaning Tom to his feet and marched him out of the room. Jenny placed a hand on Ash’s shoulder.

“You… you shouldn’t have done that, Ash,” she whispered, “There could be repercussions.”

“I don’t care,” Ash turned to her, the colour returning slowly to his face, “He hurt her. He deserved it.”

He turned away from her and stormed out of the room, feeling the tingle running through his hand.

**

Ash spent the rest of the day wandering Pewter in contemplation; returning only when he knew the others would be getting ready for bed. When he arrived back at the gym he nodded smartly to Brock, kissed his mother on the cheek and wandered back to Brock’s den to bed down on the sofa.

He knew that Brock’s siblings never came to this part of the house at night. Brock’s den was off limits to the younger clan. He kicked his jeans off onto the floor and grabbed the remote from the coffee table. He lounged on the sofa, flicking through the channels until he drifted off. Some time later, the sun had set while he dozed; he felt a hand on his chest.

“Myst?” he rubbed his eyes groggily, “Everything alright?”

He saw her nod slightly, her silhouette moving against the dim moonlit window, and smiled. They sat in silence for a few moments, Ash had realised he should not push her, until she shifted uncomfortably. He reached over to the reading lamp.

In the light he saw her face, expression concerned, and reached out to cup her cheek.

“Come with me?” she whispered, her voice barely on the cusp of hearing, “Please.”

Before he had a chance to speak she moved her legs so that she straddled him, his hands moved automatically to support her and he found himself brushing bare skin under her nightdress. His head swam as she ran one hand up his thigh, forcing every thought out of his mind. Ash groaned and pushed his head back into the armrest, enjoying the sensation of her fingers under the fabric of his boxers. He felt himself react to her touch and forced back the overpowering urge to throw her to the floor and mount her.

“Misty…” he began but she cut him off with a squeeze of her hand on his leg, a flutter of her lips against his hip. Ash’s mind clouded at the feel of her breath on his skin, her lips making a trail along his abdomen, down his thigh. He didn’t register her fingertips pushing away his boxers until he felt the warm of her mouth on him, her hands resting lightly on his hips.

“Misty,” her name escaped his lips in a moan this time, rolling out from within his throat. His breathing, getting heavier and more erratic, punctuated the silence. His fingers twisted his hands into balls where they rested and he realised he was clutching her hair when she whimpered softly.

_Stop, you’re using her. You’re hurting her._

He raised himself up on his elbows as she leant forward to kiss him desperately and gently pushed her back to sit up. In the warm, distorted light of the lamp she looked so vulnerable, so unsure and Ash felt a painful pang of longing. A need to erase everything and go back to how they once were; fleeting, clumsy meetings in cupboards and empty rooms where they could explore one another. The thrill, but not fear, of getting caught. A time when he could see her face contort with pleasure and not mirrored in it the contortion of pain. A pain he saw in her eyes right now, as she looked up at him.

“I’m not damaged goods…” she whispered. Ash cocked his head to one side and furrowed his brow. She took a deep breath. “That’s what _he_ said… that no one would want me now. I’m damaged goods.”

“Misty,” he drew her close and ran his fingers through her hair, “I _do_ want you, but not just for that. I love you. You don’t have to prove him wrong.”

“But you wanted too…” she pulled away to look at him, but as her words trailed away she reached back out for his arm, “Before you found out. Now, it’s like you’re too afraid to touch me.”

Ash stroked her cheek fondly and caught a tear on his fingertips. How could he express how he felt when he should be the one listening?

“Misty-“ he began as she leant into his touch, eyes closed.

“I just want to feel normal again, Ash.” She whispered, interrupting him seamlessly.

What had Nurse Joy said… what had everyone said? _‘She’ll need you in her own way’._ He cupped Misty’s face and turned her to look him in the eye.

“This is what you want?” he growled softly, unable to mask the desire he felt. A weight on his heart lifted as she nodded, accompanied by a wave of longing sweeping through him.

Ash leant forward, drawing her closer, her chin still cupped in his palm. The kiss he offered her was soft but probing and he pulled her body towards him, revelling the feeling of her against his chest.

“Lead the way,” his voice buzzed in her ear and she kissed him hungrily clutching at his shirt as she moved to stand. Ash bashed his shin on the table in his haste to follow her back to their room, freezing briefly when Pikachu stirred but continued snoring.

In the hallway he pushed her against a wall and kissed her passionately, balling his fists in her hair.

“I love you. I love you. I _love_ you.” He mumbled into her lips.

“Shh!” she giggled, kissing him again to silence him, “You’ll wake up Brock!”

“So?” he put on a playfully thoughtful face, “Maybe he’ll learn something.”

“Ash!” she hissed, slapping his chest. “Come on!” she pulled him forcefully through the door he hadn’t realised was open.

In the room he broke away, reaching to switch out the light, but Misty touched his elbow.

“Leave it.” She said firmly.

“You sure?” he looked up at her imploringly.

“I have nothing to hide anymore.” She took his hands and brought them down to the hem of her nightdress. He lifted it in one slow motion and kissed her, throwing the dress down on the floor.

“Your turn,” he whispered, grinning and guided her hands to rest at his waistband. When they stood naked before one another he took a step back to admire her. Her skin was perfect again, with only a sliver of a scar on her ribs remaining, and he pulled her flush against him to run his lips down her neck. At the touch of his lips she animated in his arms and brought her hands to his face to kiss him hungrily.

Ash moved to pull her down to the bed and hesitated. Was this too much pressure?

“Here,” he whispered, sitting down on the edge. He put his hands on her hips and pulled her down to his lap.

“Misty,” he moaned against her mouth, “I want you. _So_ much.”

She wrapped her legs around him in reply, pulling him close and moving her hips in time with his. Ash revelled in the feel of her; relaxed against him, her arms draped lightly around his shoulders. He knew this should have been how he acted all along, with a hand on her back to support her, to stop her from falling. Not pulling away from her when she needed him the most. He rocked her gently, smiling into her mouth as her breathing became more laboured.

She moved to push him back on the bed, his legs dangling over the side, her straddling his waist. With a playful leer he ran his hands from her hips up her back and pulled her down to him, planting a clumsy kiss on her lips and rolling her onto her back. For a moment he was able to admire her in the lamplight, her skin wonderfully pale and smooth, her face flushed. But the stirring in his belly was too much and he found himself hungry for her, pulling her into his arms as they joined once again.

He was glad for the fact he could gaze down into her eyes for words alone would be meaningless; he felt sure he’d never be able to express how he felt in mere everyday language.

_I love you?_

_I’ve never been happier?_

_I never want this moment to end?_

_I want to spend the rest of my life with you?_

Even in his head he knew they were not enough to convey the warmth, the excitement, the joy and the perversely pleasurable pain he felt in that and every moment he was with her. Instead they conversed with their lips; one minute fluttering and flurrying against each other in anticipation but growing deeper until Ash felt he should almost be able to _taste_ her. He imagined she would taste like cinnamon and vowed to add it to every possible dish he could before eating.

It felt like an age since he had last held her like this. Not just a little over a week. So much had happened, so much had changed that it was like they had all grown so quickly. She moaned into his ear and he was struck; with love and lust and the realisation that this was them now. There was nothing left to hide.

That same thought which had once terrified him into throwing her away now made him draw her closer still. He was hungry for her, as hungry as she seemed for him and they rode a wave together until they lay spent in each others arms. Suddenly immobilised Ash panted as his heart raced, Misty giggling gently in his arms. He kissed her until the heavy beating of his heart subsided and he rolled off of her, pulling her along so that they readjusted their position on the bed.

“There…” he breathed as he fluffed up the pillows and flopped back down. His grin was titanic and infectious, mirrored in her face, and happily Ash closed his eyes and sighed. He must have dozed off, although he dreamt of nothing but a blanket of bliss, for when he next opened his eyes the light was off. But in the darkness he could see Misty beaming down at him.

“Ash?” her voice was soft and warmed the gloom; he looked at her sleepily, a childish grin on his face.

“What?”

“I love you too.” she whispered, laying her head down on his chest. Ash’s breath caught in his throat as he wrapped his arms lightly around her, loathe to ruin the moment. After a precious few seconds he felt her hand wander and smiled, rolling over to cover her. His forearms resting on either side of her head as he kissed her. In the darkness he closed his eyes and let every other sense run wild.

This was going to be a gloriously long night.

**

Brock’s alarm beeped five am and he hit it with his fist until it fell to the floor. Early mornings at the Gym never got any easier. He had taken to checking on Misty when he got up now that Ash was sleeping in the other room. Whatever Ash seemed to think Brock knew he was far from having everything under control. He had seen all of his qualms and fears mirrored in Ash’s words the previous morning.

Approaching Misty’s room, he turned the handle gently and poked his head round the door. The light was on, revealing a bed stripped of pillows and covers. Brock felt himself panic until he craned his neck further.

On the floor next to the bed he found them asleep. Ash’s right arm curled gently around Misty’s shoulders, cushioning her head, the other draped over her waist.

Brock tiptoed backwards and shut the door quietly behind him, breathing a sigh of relief.

“Huh. Well I’m glad that problem’s solved,” he grinned to himself as he fetched his cleaning apron.


	22. Chapter Twenty One

"What time is it?”

Ash leant over to grab the alarm clock from the bedside cabinet, his fingers grasping wildly at empty space before they eventually brushed past it. He took one look at the number flashing on the screen and threw it on the bed.

“Too early to get up,” he shuffled back and flopped down onto his pillow.

“You mean too early for breakfast?” Misty’s voice answered back somewhere near his ear.

“Exactly,” he grinned but kept his eyes tightly shut. He heard her giggle quietly and felt a warm pressure against his shoulder as she leant against him. Opening one eye slowly he saw her leering back at him playfully.

“Well,” he reached out for her, “I suppose it’s not too early for _other_ things.”

Misty rolled away from him, taking the bed sheet with her, and giggled at his confusion.

“Actually, Ash,” she threw herself into an armchair by the window, wrapping the sheet around herself beforehand, “Now that I’ve had my way with you, you can go.”

She waved her arm towards the door theatrically, her face grave. Ash pouted, trying to keep his face straight and shuffled towards her on his knees.

“ _Please,_ Misty,” he moaned mischievously, failing to match even Misty’s poor acting skills, “Brock’ll have me doing chores if you kick me out.”

He rested his head in Misty’s lap, looking up at her with big eyes. For a moment they sat there, grinning mischievously at each other, until Ash’s smile faltered slightly and his eyes changed.

“I love you,” he whispered.

“I love you too,” she smiled gently.

“I just wanted to remind you.” He took her hand gently in his, stroking her palm with his thumb. He planted a kiss there, letting his lips linger, “And I like saying it.”

She grinned at him and, bending down to kiss him, ruffled his hair.

“Hey!” he smoothed it back down, “I’m trying to be romantic,” he moaned, sticking his tongue out for effect.

“Nice job,” she teased and rubbed her nose against his, “Love you.”

“Love you too,” he wrinkled his nose, “I’m starting to like you a lot less though.”

“Well then, you won’t mind if I leave you while I have a shower?”

“Nah, it’ll give me a break from you.”

She grinned widely at him. He’d missed their teasing one another, their little game of arguing over nothing.

“Need a hand?” he returned her grin tenfold, and she flicked him on the nose, “O-kay. I’ll take that as a no.”

He took her place in the chair as she sauntered into the bathroom, humming to herself, and watched her until she closed the door with a wink.

“Damn,” he muttered amicably and contented himself with glancing round their room –Brock’s guest room, he corrected himself – other than their clothes strewn hap-hazard across the floor there was little to mark it out as their own. Everything, right down to the lacy curtains, had Brock’s stamp of approval pasted all over it. If Ash had it his own way their room would have _things_ everywhere; photos from their travels; a shelf of trophies; the cuddly Togepi Misty always kept under her bed but refused to let anyone else see; the letters they had sent each other while he was travelling without her. His favourite one, the one where she had scribbled out ‘I miss you’ at the end - but he had still been able to make out by holding it up to the light - would be framed. He’d tease her about it every day, until she finally cracked and said it out loud. _Fine, I did miss you._

The sound of Misty singing to herself in the shower made him smile. Maybe he’d take her back to Pallet Town where she could be close to the sea. Her Pokemon would like that. He made a mental note to ask Daisy how _they_ had been coping through all this and glanced back to the bathroom door. The water was still running – she really did have _long_ showers… how would his Mum feel about that? – he remembered all the talks his Mum gave him about wasted water. It’s a scarce resource, she used to say.

Well if she didn’t like it they could find their own house once they got married. They’d need a bigger place for all their Pokemon, not to mention ki-

He sat up straight. Marriage? _Kids_? When did _that_ become an option? He wrinkled his nose; their kids would be _brats_. But his expression changed when he thought about just how cute any child of theirs would be; even if they did inherit stubbornness from both parents. They’d have his determination, and with Misty’s head screwed on their shoulders they’d be able to do anything they put their minds to. And he’d be able to _teach_ them stuff. Stuff that his dad had never taught him. Stuff like how to fart the alphabet; or make a hideout from a tree; or how to tell a girl _likes_ you. Important stuff.

He was still grinning to himself when Misty emerged, smelling of lemons, from the shower. She gave him a suspicious look.

“What’s up, Ash?”

“I’m going to be a great dad!” he grinned wildly at her but her look of horror jolted him back into the moment, “Someday,” he finished lamely. The look of suspicion magnified tenfold.

“You don’t have something to tell me, do you?” she asked quietly, hand drawn to her stomach. His eyes widened.

“No! Do you?”

“No!”

They looked at each other blankly for a few seconds.

“Are you alright, Ash?”

“Yeah,” he scratched the back of his head, “I was just thinking… about stuff… maybe I fell asleep.”

She laughed at him, batting him lightly on the arm. _You’re odd._ He opened his mouth to protest but there was a knock on the door and it opened, slowly. Brock poked his head timidly through the crack and seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.

“What’s up, Brock?” Misty asked distractedly, brushing away a stray piece of fluff from her towel that had worked itself onto Ash’s shoulder.

“Er… Well…”

“Everything alright?”

“Yeah,” he replied non-convincingly. Ash looked over at him.

“Brock?”

“Ash, it could be nothing, but you might want to call the League…” he said quietly, “I can’t get a hold of Jenny or Paul. I think something’s up.”

**

Dressed within a few minutes, Ash sat down in the Gym’s lobby. Brock had helpfully taped the League’s contact information to the side of the screen, but the numbers were burned into the back of Ash’s mind and he tapped at the phone automatically. It rang for longer than he expected and when he heard the click of the receiver the screen remained blank.

“Hello? Anybody there?” he squinted and the screen burst into life.

“Oh… Hello Sir.” The familiar face of the League receptionist popped up onto the screen. Her face was welcoming but her tone immediately made him worry.

“You’re calling about the Cerulean Gym?” her voice was strangely hushed and she leaned into the screen. Before he could reply she turned away from him, “What? No, please go away. This is League business.”

She sighed and turned back to him. He raised his eyebrows at her.

“Trouble?”

“The press have been here all morning asking questions. They won’t accept that I _can’t_ tell them anything.”

In the background Ash heard a voice demand “ _is that the Pokemon Master?_ ” and saw the receptionist sigh deeply. He decided to get straight to the point.

“You’ve spoken to Officer Jenny?” he asked quietly. She winced.

“Yes, we’ve been told about the… problems…”

“Problems?” Ash glared at her incredulously, “Do your Gym leaders mean _that_ little to you?”

She gave him a pained look in return.

“Sorry, Sir-“

“Call me Ash,” he snapped impatiently. There was an audible gasp and a shuffle in the background and she snapped in the direction of a flashing camera.

“Ash, I’m in the public reception. Let me put you on hold and I’ll get someone to cover for me. I can’t say much here.”

Ash nodded and listened with fast diminishing patience to the cheerful hold music. The screen sprang back into life at the second chorus and he readjusted his expression.

“So, can you can let me know what’s going on now?”

“Yes, sorry. But for the sake of everyone involved,” she raised her eyebrows meaningfully, “We’re trying to keep this quiet. The press have been pestering us all morning trying to figure out what’s been going on.”

“No one’s told them anything?” he felt his anger ebb slightly as she shook her head and relaxed into politeness once more, “What about the situation with the Gym?”

“There’s been little change since the sisters were escorted out of Cerulean. Levy’s barricaded himself in. Derek,” she added as he glanced at her confused, “We were hoping to work with the police to lay a siege before today but there were some difficulties acquiring a squad for his arrest in Cerulean.”

“Difficulties?” Ash raised an eyebrow.

“Just a lack of communication really,” she sighed, “The Cerulean Jenny was with a small team, escorting the three sisters to Pewter, when we inquired and the rest of the force hadn’t been informed about his whereabouts. They were in the Mount Moon area looking for him. The Pewter force was called in today.”

“Any sign of him?”

“He seems to have enough supplies to have kept him going this far. But the place has been surrounded by police for the past twelve hours. Jenny from Pewter arrived early this morning to help guide the remaining Cerulean team.”

“Are they armed?” he asked, remembering the barrel of Derek’s gun between his eyes. She nodded, her face briefly eclipsed by a look of concern.

“So far it’s been pretty quiet. They’re keeping us updated but there’s been a lot of standing around. I don’t think they’ve been able to talk to him yet.”

“They can’t just barge in?” he asked, slightly annoyed at what seemed to him to be a very slow process. She shook her head.

“They want him alive, for the information he can give them alone. And he knows it. They won’t go in until they can negotiate with him, or else we could end up with a shoot-out.” Ash winced and nodded to show he understood. The implications would be messy for everyone.

“So at the moment it’s a case of just wait- Wait, sorry. What?” she addressed someone off camera and her face turned into a frown. Excusing herself she left his field of vision but he could hear parts of a whispered conversation her end picked up by her receiver.

_“… problem? What delivery_? _I didn’t see anyone drop that off this morning!_ ”

“ _They know! How_? _Who leaked it_?”

Within a few moments she returned, red-faced and concerned.

“Ash,” she said quickly, “Turn on your TV. Something’s happening.”

“What?” he frowned.

As he spoke Brock rushed into the room and gripped his shoulder tightly.

“Ash, quick.”

He thanked the receptionist politely and bolted into the den. Misty sat wide-eyed on the sofa, Daisy’s arm tightly wound round her shoulders. At the sight of him Daisy withdrew slightly and he fell down next to her.

“The police… they’re everywhere.”

He turned his attention to the screen and saw that she wasn’t exaggerating. The area outside the Gym swarmed with policemen, most of them visibly armed, and he could make out their own Jenny standing on a raised platform, megaphone in hand. The sound had been reduced, making it difficult to make out her words, but the reporter’s voiceover filled them in.

“ _The police arrived in the early hours of the morning after the force concentrated around Pewter City issued a warrant for his arrest_.”

He thought back to their morning; messing about and joking together merely an hour beforehand. It was strange how much things could change in a matter of hours; going to blissful to tense in the blink of an eye.

“ _The_ _police have yet to confirm the whereabouts of the Cerulean Sisters, but they are believed to be in a safe house in Vermillion City_.”

“Vermillion?” Ash looked towards Brock.

“Probably false information deliberately leaked. If any of Derek’s buddies are watching they won’t find you,” he glanced towards Misty and she gave him a small, nervous smile. 

“ _Police sources have stated that he is wanted alive and his arrest will mark an integral point in an ongoing investigation. We have been unable to confirm the nature of this investigation._ ” 

Ash strained his eyes to see what was going on. It was difficult to see what the fuss was; the cameras were mainly trained on the police themselves. But the anxiety on their faces was clear. For a moment the reporter hushed and he could make out Jenny’s voice on the megaphone. 

“ _Everyone get down! He’s threatening to shoot!”_

In the ensuing panic most of the spectators fled the scene, darting behind bushes and releasing Pokemon. Jenny’s Growlithe barked at them to get back. 

“What is she doing?” gasped Brock, “Standing up there!” But his distress was short-lived, distracted by the reporter’s face reappearing on the screen. 

“ _The man, who is believed to be originally from Celadon City, is wanted for a number of unrelated crimes_ …” 

Ash gripped Misty’s hand tighter and felt her squeeze back. Exchanging a glance with her he saw her face had paled. 

“ _Including_ _the rape of his former girlfriend, Misty, the Cerulean City Gym leader_.” 

Ash heard a hiss as Brock let out his breath in one long go. 

“The League said they were keeping that quiet!” Ash cried, louder than he had intended. He cursed himself, but felt Misty’s hand gently tugging at his sleeve. 

“It’s alright Ash,” she murmured and gave him a small, painful smile, “As long as they get him it’s alright-” She was cut off by Daisy pointing at the screen. 

An piercing bang, numbed for their ears by the proxy of the television speaker, rang out from the gardens of the Gym. The camera shook and refocused on the platform where Jenny had been standing. It was empty. Brock lurched forward slightly but gave an audible sigh when she emerged, having been pulled from her place by Paul. The confusion on the screen was paramount, people gazing back at the Gym. For a moment no one spoke. Then a woman screamed. 

The room went quiet. 

“Was that a gunshot?” whispered Daisy.


	23. Chapter Twenty Two

Voices in the television suddenly picked up and a sort of panic swept through the assembled crowd. The reporter paused then raised her microphone to her lips, but the look on her face told them she had no idea what to say. She was saved the trouble of ad-libbing as a woman behind her fainted.

“ _Somebody’s been hit!_ ” a man screamed in the background, hiding behind his Rhyhorn. The crowd dispersed and the Pewter Jenny briefly came into view with her cousin, blowing whistles and trying to calm the rising alarm.

“ _Everyone!_ ” she held her hands high, “ _Calm down! The shot came from inside the building!_ ”

“Did she say, _inside_?” asked Daisy quietly. Ash turned to Misty, her face was pale and he sat her back, afraid she might faint.

“ _Please,_ calm _down!”_ The deep voice of Officer Paul entered the fray, “ _Make your way down the street. We_ must _begin an investigation._ ”

“That coward,” Brock muttered bitterly behind him. Ash looked up at him, confused. But then the sound of the gunshot rang though his mind and he suddenly realised what Brock meant.

“He shot himself?”

Misty let out a soft sob and he reached for her, enveloping her in his arms. The feeling in their room was a stark contrast to the panic amongst the Cerulean crowds. Daisy let out a sob like her sister and Brock muttered under his breath. Ash just held Misty tighter, confused.

“Misty…” he began, but Brock put a hand on his shoulder, the look he gave him warning him to be quiet. Daisy, Violet and Lily looked on in horror, their eyes glued to the screen.

“I’m ok,” Misty murmured and rubbed her eyes, “It’s just… the shock.”

The screen cut from a shot of Paul’s face, weary and concerned, to a view of the Gym. Armed men were kicking down the door with booted feet and disappeared inside, Jenny at the helm. For a moment the screen focussed on the broken doorway but cut back to the reporter, flustered and confused, to try and explain.

“ _We… Back to the studio!_ ” the scene cut from the rattled reporter to the news desk and Brock hit ‘mute’ angrily.

“Bastard,” he muttered.

Misty pulled gently away from Ash’s arms and got up from the sofa.

“Myst?” Ash tried to reach for her hand, but she drew back.

“Let me be for a while, Ash,” she whispered and, without waiting for a reply, stepped away from him and out of the room.

**

Their bedroom door was ajar when Ash wandered to bed. It made so noise, no tell-tale creak, as he pushed it open and he was able to watch her unnoticed for a few moments and she sat huddled on the windowsill. She had obviously been crying and he wanted to pull her into his arms and hold her tight.

She sighed and he cleared his throat gently.

“Ash,” she smiled softly, “How long have you been there?”

“Not long,” he returned her smile and stepped into the room, pushing the door shut gently behind him. Their room felt a little strange to him now; there was no danger anymore, no reason for him to stay here and protect her. But as he looked round he could think of no place he better belonged.

“I’m not going anywhere this time Myst,” he whispered, breaking the silence and she turned from the window to face him. She looked at him slightly confused but smiled.

“Are you ok?” he whispered.

“I don’t know,” she said softly. Ash moved to take a seat next to her and let silence envelope them. He wanted to reach out to her, but she kept her hands firmly in her lap and didn’t meet his eye.

“I loved him,” she murmured suddenly, looking up at him with tear-filled eyes, “I loved him in the end. I should hate him but I don’t! I don’t want him to be dead, Ash!”

Ash stared back at her with big eyes and she put her hand over her mouth.

“I’m sorry, Ash. I love you, I’m sorry.”

“Shh, Myst,” he curled his hand round the back of her neck and pulled her to him, kissing her forehead tenderly.

“I’m sorry, Ash,” she breathed deep against his collar and he felt her relax slightly, “I don’t know _how_ I feel.”

“I know,” he murmured even though he knew he could not understand, could not comprehend, the tumult within her.

“It’s not an ending,” she spoke softly into the fabric of his jacket, her fingers wrapping round his collar like a comforter, “It’s like he got away with it. I’ll never know _why_ he did it. I’ll never get any explanation or reason.”

Ash held her tighter.

“I’ll never know if he loved me... or if he just...” she trailed off with a sob.

Ash froze, shocked

“Misty,” he held her firmly by the shoulders and met her eyes; red-rimmed with tears she gazed back at him and he felt his heart break a little for her, “Myst,” his voice softened, “I’m sorry. He _didn’t_ love you. If he loved you he wouldn’t have done those things to you; he wouldn’t have used you. That’s not love! I don’t care what he told you!”

He cut himself off and for a moment he regretted what he’d said. Her face crumpled slightly and when she spoke her voice was shaky.

“I know, Ash,” she murmured, “I just spent so long thinking that he only did those things because he cared...” she trailed off, looking at her hands and Ash stroked her face gently. He shifted uncomfortably on the windowsill and took her hand, pulling her down onto the bed with him. She nestled against his and rested her head on his shoulder as he spoke.

“Don’t ever think that was love, Myst, don’t ever think that. This, _this_ ,” he drew his clenched hand from his chest to hers, “Is love. Knowing that if you say no I’ll listen. That I’m happy to just hold you while you sleep. That you can tell me anything without being scared I’ll raise my hand to you, or humiliate you, or use it against you.”

He stopped to brush her hair from her face gently. She hadn’t taken her eyes off of him as he spoke and he saw a soft change in her features; she understood what he was saying to her.

“I love you, Myst,” he kissed her softly, “I won’t let anyone hurt you ever again.”

“Ash...” she breathed his name but there was no more, just her arms wrapped tightly around his chest.

“Come on,” he whispered, taking her arm, “I’ll make you something to eat.”

**

“Thanks, Ash,” she looked up from her bowl and gave him a small smile.

“Are you ok?” he hadn’t taken his eyes off of her as she ate. She nodded softly and reached out squeeze his hand.

“I’ll be ok, Ash,” she sighed, “I’m just not sure how I should be feeling right now. I’m not sure what I’m even supposed to be doing!” She drew her hand back to rub her eyes but he reached out for her.

“Come with me back to Pallet Town,” he said softly, holding her hands gently in his own, “You can’t go back to the Gym. At least for the time being, until the police have finished there,” he added hurriedly.

She looked at him doubtfully.

“Come on, Myst,” he pleaded gently, “My Mum says the hype has died down now. It’s back to being quiet again, far quieter than Cerulean in any case. And you’ll be near the sea and…” he trailed off.

“And?” she raised an eyebrow.

“… and you’ll be with me. Properly this time,” he finished with a slightly lame tone of voice.

“I’d like that,” she smiled softly, “I would Ash, but I-“

“No ‘buts’, Myst. I love you. I want to be with you but there are too many bad memories here. And even more bad memories in Cerulean! Your sisters can cope without you for a while. Please?”

He squeezed her hands gently as she met his eyes, his heart pounding in his chest. As she nodded he felt a weight lift from him and jumped round the table to hug her.

“I’ll make you so happy, Misty,” he murmured into her hair, his face split into a grin. As he pulled back slightly he saw his expression matched in hers and laughed, pulling her into the lounge.


End file.
